Sonic 230 Alternate Story
by Jonathan83X
Summary: Picking up after the dream in this alternate scenario, Sonic, along with Sally and some unexpected help now fight to keep Eggman from firing his roboticizing ray. Will they succeed? And will Sally's fate be any different this time?
1. Part 1

Sonic 230 Alternate story Version A

Part 1 of 2.

Author note: This is only my interpretation on how I wished 230 went down instead of the way it was written by Ian Flynn.

Since this is based off the 225 alternate story, it will not resemble the official 230 one of Archie Sonic.

Moments later, the trapped Freedom Fighters looked on in awe from the aftermath of the battle.

Within seconds, Eggman's pods began to self-destruct violently, with fire and smoke soon billowing from it.

Eggman though instantly bailed out from destroyed pods before the fire could burn him, now trying to escape in his Eggmobile.

Sonic however wasn't about to let him get away, as he quickly charged towards the mad doctor, quickly hitting him with a well-executed spin dash attack from behind when within reach.

Thanks to having a Chaos Emerald on him, the blue hedgehog easily hit his Eggmobile with enough speed and power from the underside of it to send Eggman's hovercraft crashing heavily into a wall nearby.

With his main foe now heavily dazed in a wrecked hovercraft on the floor, Sonic then ran back towards his friends and freed them from their capsule with another well timed spin dash to its outer shell.

Again, Sonic was able to break through it with ease, soon putting a large hole in it for them to escape out of.

Immediately, his friends ran out of the capsule with joy and surrounded him, cheering the blue hedgehog on for his valiant heroics.

"Way to go, Sonic." Rotor said elated, patting him on the back. "That was nothing short of way past cool on how you took it to Robotnik."

Even Antoine couldn't help but give Sonic a nod of approval.

Sally meanwhile hugged the blue hedgehog tightly, where she soon gave him a passionate kiss on the right cheek, saying with gratitude in her eyes, "Sonic, you were wonderful. Thank you so much for saving us."

"Aw, it was nothing, Sal." Sonic replied blushing a bit. "All in a day's work for this hog."

After a brief pause, Sally now looked at him flirtatiously, saying, "Sonic…"

"Yea, Sal?"

"Sonic…"

"Yea?"

Again, she repeated the same line, puzzling the blue hedgehog to no end.

"Sal, just spit it out what you're trying to tell me already." Sonic stated a bit annoyed.

Just then, her tone in her voice abruptly changed from love to despair, as he heard her say his name again.

"Sonic…"

"Sal?"

Sally again said his name, only this time even stronger in despair.

"Sonic…!"

Before the blue hedgehog knew what was going on, he heard the ground squirrel say his name even louder and with more fear in her voice.

"Sally, what are you…?"

That was the last thing he could say. Out of nowhere, he felt a strong nudge, saying to him in the same manner as before, "Sonic, please answer me!"

In that moment, Sonic finally was awakened from his dream, as he soon saw Sally kneeling over him, now deeply relieved.

"Sonic, are you ok?" she asked with deep concern.

"I guess so…" he replied with a painful groan, shaking his head while placing a hand on the bump of it. "What just happened?"

"There's no time to explain." Sally told him firmly. "Right now, we need your help at once. Eggman's roboticizing ray is set to go off in less than five minutes."

"We…?"

Sally then helped Sonic to his feet, as the blue hedgehog soon asked further, "What do we mean by we? Didn't we enter this oversized hunk of metal ship by ourselves?"

"Yea, but that was before you fell unconscious." Sally explained softly, soon running towards one of the corridors.

"Before what?" Sonic inquired puzzled, now running after her. "How long was I out?"

"About twenty five minutes." Sally answered.

"But… Eggbelly's machine I thought was set to go off before then." Sonic stated puzzled.

"It was…" Sally explained. "Thankfully though, Nicole was able to hack into Eggman's database and locked out the main firing mechanism for a short period of time."

"How did you do that with that mondo ugly silver Sonic robot in the way?" Sonic asked perplexed.

"I had some help…" Sally told him by a bit awkwardly.

"Say what?"

Before the ground squirrel could tell him who it was exactly, Sonic soon found out for himself.

Once they arrived in the next room, he now saw one of his strongest comrades trying to hold off the fierce Silver Sonic III with her robotic abilities.

"What in the…?"

Moments later, Sally abruptly tackled to the ground.

Before the blue hedgehog could ask why, he soon found out himself, as Metal Sonic soon flew by their heads.

However, the blue spiky robot didn't fly there on his own to try and attack them, but was caused by the attack of another of his well-known allies.

Within seconds, he saw this comrade now charging after Metal Sonic, declaring firmly while wielding her Piko Hammer high in the air, "You won't be hurting my Sonikku if I have anything to say about it!"

"Where did they come from?" Sonic inquired, now more dumbfounded than ever.

"I don't have time to explain this unfortunately." Sally told him. "I need you to help them take out these robots of Eggman's while I try to figure a way to destroy his roboticizing ray."

"But, Sal…"

"Please, Sonic…" Sally replied firmly, putting a hand on his shoulder. "I can't do this without you. Please do as I ask…"

Sonic at first thought of arguing with her, but seeing that time was indeed not on their side, he replied while nodding his head, "Very well, Sal."

Sally then gave him one passionate last hug and quickly began to run off, making the blue hedgehog think once he stood up, _I don't what just happened, but I guess I'll ask questions later. Right now, she's counting on me._

Sonic soon added firmly while running over to Bunnie to give her a hand, Ok, Eggbelly… this time, you're finished!

While Sally ran to find the spot where the roboticizing ray was currently located, Eggman on the other hand at the moment was nothing short of ticked off, especially after what he had just found out.

"I cannot believe that wretched Princess was able to outwit me on my own ship!" Eggman roared, banging his right hand on the dash of his Eggmobile as hard as he could. "It's just not possible! After all, I'm the cunning genius here!"

He soon growled in rage, adding while seething, "Well, if she's going to keep meddling in my personal business, I'm going to take care of her myself…"

As the mad doctor thought back of the previous events in his mind, he couldn't even begin to fathom had his Silver Sonic III was unable to kill her, not to mention the fact he had learned about a dire plot from his so called henchmen during this time as well.

From the moment Sonic had been knocked unconscious, what happened soon afterwards, even now had completely dumbfounded him.

Sally during that time had basically been running for her life, trying as hard as hard as she could to keep from getting cut up by Silver Sonic III's razor blades.

However, Sally soon realized the longer she kept this up, the greater chance of Silver Sonic III injuring, or even killing Sonic in the process.

_There's only one thing to do…_ Sally thought firmly to herself.

Remembering which room the turret gun was in when Eggman had tried to kill her from before, the ground squirrel princess decided to use it to her advantage.

After she evaded the robot again by diving out its way, Sally instantly ran towards that corridor

Eggman at first was baffled by this decision on her part, thinking with a slight grin, _is that Princess actually going back to the room with the turret gun? Does she have a death wish or something?_

Unfortunately for the mad doctor, Sally was setting a trap, as she only went in about one fourth of the way inside to bait it.

Sure enough, Silver Sonic III soon spotted her in there after turning around, instantly charging after the ground squirrel.

_Right on cue…_ Sally thought with a smirk.

Once it got close to her, Sally quickly ran closer inside to get the turret gun trap to activate again.

As she thought, it did indeed.

Again, Eggman didn't figure out what she was trying to do. He even thought she was getting herself in a pickle by having his Silver Sonic III chase after her from behind.

However, it soon became clear as day to him what the ground squirrel Princess had just pulled off.

Before the huge silver robot could come within three feet of her, the turret gun again went off, now blasting it with another three loud, "BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!" sounds.

As before, Sally ducked to the floor before it went off, completely evading the attack.

Silver Sonic III on the other hand wasn't lucky. Due to pursuing after her too intensely, all three turret bullets hit Eggman's huge silver robot in its metal head, knocking it back several feet, as well seriously damaged it.

In a flash, Eggman's emotions changed from intrigue, to downright rage.

He then growled furiously with his hands raised high in the air, "You rotten rodent! How dare you use my own trap against me!"

Sally though paid no attention to his words, as she subtly slipped by the now heavily stunned robot of Eggman's robot, now running away to try and put some distance between her and the Silver Sonic III.

Unfortunately for her though, Eggman's secret weapon machine did not stay stunned for very long, as it quickly came after her again within five seconds.

Sally soon turned around and heard its whirring from before, making her gasp in fear.

"Oh great… that attack didn't affect Eggman's robot as long as I had originally hoped…" she stated with a sigh.

Sally then asked Nicole, "Now what do I do?"

Nicole, who sadly was still deeply affected from Naugus' attack from before , softly replied, "You've got to get Sonic out of this room. Sooner or later, those blades sticking out of the Silver Sonic III robot are going to seriously injure him, or worse…"

Sally couldn't argue with that.

So, in spite of the fact of being pursued by Eggman's Silver Sonic robot, she vowed on the spot to help Sonic to safety, even if meant putting her own life in jeopardy.

Moments later, the Silver Sonic III again came at her with another devastating spin dash attack.

Sally though kept her composure, where she soon ran in a direction away from where Sonic was currently laying on the floor.

Thanks to her well thought out plan, Sally was able to put enough distance that the Silver Sonic III again did not come close to hitting the blue hedgehog.

Once she dove out of the way from its latest attack, Sally immediately ran towards Sonic, where she quickly, but carefully picked him up, now carrying her true love firmly in her arms.

"Hang in there, Sonic." Sally said with a tearful in her eye. "I'll find a way to get you out of harm's way..."

She then added with a lot of doubt in her facial expressions, "Somehow…"

Seconds later, the Silver Sonic III came charging towards her again.

With Sonic in her arms, Sally was no longer able to run as fast. And on top of that, she had to place Nicole on her boot in order to carry her now.

Nevertheless, Sally wasn't about to lose her nerve. The squirrel princess kept pressing on, for the sake of Sonic, as well as her friends.

She soon ran towards another corridor to the right, trying to bait the Silver Sonic III inside to buy her some more time.

Again, the Silver Sonic III over pursued its prey when trying to chase Sally down, spinning directly into that room.

Using her wits and intelligence once more, Sally was thankfully able to evade its attack, though not as easily from before, now jumping to the left when it came close to her.

However, like before, the Silver Sonic III did not take long to turn around and chase after the squirrel princess again.

Sally then ran towards the south part of the room, trying again to give her enough distance to counter its next attack.

Seconds later, the huge silver robot once more came flying in towards her.

Sally again tried to bait Eggman's machine into another corridor, but would not succeed.

This time, the Silver Sonic III robot would miss the opening by several feet, as it hit the wall nearby due to pursuing her at a bad angle.

That miss unfortunately now put Sally in a serious bind, as she didn't have the same amount of time to react and counter from before.

Even so, she refused to quit and fold up emotionally.

_I can't let Sonic down, even if things are looking bad._ Sally thought firmly to herself while trying to

A split second later, the Silver Sonic III again came spinning after her with fury.

But again, Sally found a way to keep herself and Sonic from getting maimed, as she now jumped out of the way in sheer desperation.

After three more successful evasion attempts by the Silver Sonic III, Eggman by this time was completely fed up inside, saying with a growl, "All right, no more games… I'm going to put that meddling Princess in a bind where she'll soon have nowhere to run!"

While Eggman activated his next plan, Sally stated to Nicole while evading one of Silver Sonic III's attacks with another jump, "I sure could use some backup now…"

She then asked her A.I best friend, "Are you sure you transmitted our current coordinates to the Freedom Fighter Special?"

"Yes…" Nicole replied weakly. "I sent them out after you and Sonic entered the Death Egg."

"Then, where are they?" Sally inquired, after evading another Silver Sonic III spin dash. "Surely they must have found a way inside by now…"

"You do have to remember, Sally." Nicole reiterated. "This is not the same Death Egg Eggman used from before. It's been heavily upgraded and fortified."

"Yea, you're telling me…" Sally muttered with a heavy sigh.

After Sally evaded Silver Sonic III's attacks for a third time, she soon heard another whirring soon from the west.

"What was that?" Sally inquired a bit paranoid, looking around the room.

"It's the end of you and the blue furball!" Eggman retorted loudly over the PA. "That's what it is…!"

Just then, Sally saw another robot enter the room, none other than Metal Sonic, instantly making her gasp in horror.

"Have fun trying to evade both at the same time, Princess." Eggman cackled. "This time, you won't be spoiling my victory party!"

While Eggman's words deeply infuriated her, Sally realized it she was indeed in big trouble.

Seconds later, both of Eggman's robots attempted to attack her at once, instantly causing great drops of sweat to bead down her brow.

Eggman though just looked on from his control room with a devious grin on his face, saying while rubbing his hands together in glee, "Yes, it'll all be over soon…"

Unfortunately for the mad doctor, he couldn't be more wrong. Little did he realize, his conquest was far from over.

Out of nowhere, the Silver Sonic III robot was hit hard in its metal chest by a large laser blast from the east corridor, slamming it into a wall nearby, now heavily stunned again.

"What in the…? Who dares to interfere this time?" Eggman demanded.

He soon found out who it was, none other than cyborg rabbit herself.

"Her? How did she get in here? I had the Death Egg sealed off!" the mad doctor roared in anger.

Seconds later, Snively came over the intercom, saying in a panic, "Sir, the Death Egg's been breached again!"

"What, are you serious?" Eggman interrogated. "How is that even possible?

"It appears one of the secret compartments has been broken through with brute force." Snively informed him.

"Broken through with…" Instantly, Eggman figured out what just happened. Bunnie had basically punched through it with her robotic super strength until it gave way.

Eggman now was beside himself, shouting at his nephew via video feed, "I don't care how you do it, but as soon as that ray gun fires, I want you and Lien-Da to get your butts in gear and wipe out those infernal Freedom Fighters in my ship by any means necessary! You understand me?"

"Yes, sir." Snively replied, giving him a hypocritical salute.

After Eggman signed off, Snively said to Lien-Da with a sigh of disgust while shaking his head, "It looks like that blundering oaf is going to be requiring our services for this stupid battle of his now…"

Lien-Da's reaction on the other hand was one of glee, replying, "Perfect… I've been wanting a piece of them for quite some time now anyway."

While Snively looked at her puzzled, Lien-Da added with a devious smirk, "Maybe while we're taking out the trash here, we can add a big piece of it as well to lighten our load…"

At first, Snively didn't catch on what she was getting at, but soon did after seeing her wink at him, saying, "Ah, I get it…"

He then asked puzzled, "But how can we take out that bloated buffoon too when he has those robots of his on his side?"

"Well, maybe we'll just have to reprogram those bots onto our side if it comes down to it…" Lien-Da suggested. "Get the hint?"

Snively indeed did, soon grinning evilly at her now as well.

However, the small lackey knew deep down this maneuver of theirs would be extremely risky one to pull off, especially since Eggman was very crafty and cunning when it came to machines.

Even so, Snively wasn't about to back down now, as he wanted to personally retaliate for all the abuse his uncle had put him through.

While this was going on, Sally was now able to evade Metal Sonic's oncoming spin dash, thanks to her best friends' efforts.

However, in spite of being smaller and not as powerful, the blue spiky robot nonetheless went after the squirrel Princess with the same fury as Silver Sonic III.

To make things more difficult, Metal Sonic's attacks turned out to be harder to evade due to the fact it could attack and react at a faster rate.

Even so, Sally thankfully wouldn't have to worry about it for too long.

Amy Rose finally came onto the scene twenty seconds after Bunnie had bailed Sally out, now charging towards the blue spiky robot.

Seeing Sonic in danger, Amy quickly reacted, soon blindsiding Metal Sonic from the right side with her Piko Hammer, knocking him clear across the room.

Again, Sally looked on deeply baffled, as she couldn't believe how easily they had taken down Eggman's robots.

Amy then looked at her firmly and said, "I'll keep this hunk of junk bot busy. You get Sonic to safety."

At first, Sally didn't say anything due to being a bit overwhelmed by the recent turn of events, but soon replied, saying with a nod, "Sure thing, Amy."

Before the pink hedgehog went off to attack again, Amy reiterated with a bit of a fierce glare, "I'm counting on you, Sally. Don't let anything bad happen to my precious Sonikku while I'm away, all right?"

While Sally didn't like the way she had worded that, she nonetheless again nodded her head firmly, answering, "Rest assured, I do will all I can to keep him safe."

Seeing her determination, Amy now ran off to attack.

Her timing couldn't have been any better, as the blue spiky robot soon came charging towards her with speed and power.

Amy though was ready for it, again using her Piko Hammer to keep it at bay.

Sally meanwhile ran towards another corridor, where she soon heard Eggman say with glee over the PA system again before she could inside of it, "You may have broken into my Death Egg, you despicable rodents, but your efforts will soon be in vain."

Before she could respond, Eggman added, "In less than two minutes, my roboticizing ray will be ready to fire, turning all of your beloved family members and friends into my robotic slaves! Ta ta!"

And with that statement, Eggman again began to laugh heartily, where a virtual timer soon displayed from above began to tick down.

"Drat!" Sally muttered with a frown, now starting to sweat again. "This couldn't have come at worse time…"

Bunnie, who was now keeping the Silver Sonic III at bay with her robotic arm, told her, "Hurry, Sally girl… It's up to you now. You've got to find a way to stop Eggman's ray from firing!"

Sally quickly gave her a nod and then ran off, now trying to find a main USB port in the ship for her to hook Nicole into.

"Nicole, is it possible for you to keep Eggman from firing that ray of his for the time being?" Sally asked while she ran.

"I'll try…" Nicole replied, still weak inside. "But, I doubt I'll be able to do it for that long. With my power heavily drained, the best I could probably do is thirty minutes tops, if that…"

"What's the least amount of time you think you could muster up if possible?" Sally inquired further.

"I'd say… no more than ten to fifteen minutes…" Nicole answered. "But even that's just a guess on my part."

"It's better than nothing." Sally stated, now taking a deep breath. "Let's give it a try."

Thankfully for her, Sally soon found a port for Nicole to hook up into.

With less than fifty seconds to go, Sally said to her A.I best friend in desperation after she was plugged in, "Ok, give it a go, Nicole, but don't try anything too risky that might cause you any serious repercussions."

"As you wish, Sally." Nicole said.

Nicole then went to work and tried to find the code to lock out the firing mechanism.

Fortunately for her and the others, she was able to within ten seconds, where the A.I lynx soon began to try and hack the system.

"Hurry, Nicole…" Sally said in a bit of a panic, seeing the timer at less than thirty seconds. "Time's running out…"

Sensing her best friend's concern, Nicole did everything in her power to see the task carried out.

With less than ten seconds to go, Nicole thankfully came through in the clutch, as she successfully locked out the firing mechanism for the time being.

Eggman meanwhile ordered Snively during this time when it finally hit zero, "Press the button, now! Roboticize those filthy Mobians at once!"

"Yes, sir…"

However, Snively reported back in a bit of panic five seconds later, "Sir, the roboticizer ray gun won't respond at all."

"What do you mean it won't respond?" Eggman demanded with furrowed eyebrows.

"I've pressed the button over a dozen times," Snively explained in a bit of panic, "but nothing's working! It almost looks like the program's been locked out."

"Program's been…?"

Instantly, Eggman figured it out again what just happened, shouting with in a fit of rage, "PRINCESS SALLY! CURSE YOU!"

Before Snively could respond, Eggman shouted, "I'm going to skin that wretched rodent alive for this! Nobody makes a fool outta me and gets away with it!"

"What about the others, sir?" Snively inquired.

"As I said earlier, I'm putting you and Lien-Da in charge of carrying out that task." Eggman reiterated firmly, with his face still in a fit of rage. "This one though I'm going to deal with myself!"

Not wanting to get caught in the crossfire of his wrath, Snively quickly complied with his orders, nodding his head at him.

After Eggman cut off the feed, Lien-Da said to Snively while rubbing her hands together, "Perfect… The Doctor will be too focused on the Princess to be concerned with us for time being."

Lien-Da then added to the small lackey, "I think it's time we took full advantage of this golden opportunity of ours, wouldn't you agree?"

Not surprisingly, Snively did indeed, replying with a sly grin of his own, "Once those furballs are done for, we'll sic those robots of his on that tub of lard, where we'll then be in charge of the empire."

Snively then asked the red female echidna with a bit caution, "Although, aren't you worried about my Uncle setting off the explosives built into you?"

"Relax…" Lien-Da told him with assurance. "I took the liberty while that blowhard was too busy taunting the Freedom Fighters in the Death Eggman to cut the wires in his remote control. By the time he finds that out, it'll be too late for him to do anything about it."

"Ah… how clever of you.." Snively stated impressed.

While this was going, Sally soon found out how long Nicole had locked out the firing mechanism… approximately twenty minutes.

Once Nicole told her that, Sally stated with a sigh of relief, "Thanks, my special friend. I knew you could do it…"

"No… problem… Sally…" Nicole replied very slowly.

Sally's facial expressions instantly changed, as she could tell hacking Eggman's system had drained the A.I lynx to the point of nearly being comatose.

"Nicole! Are you all right?" Sally asked in a bit of panic.

"Don't… worry… about… me…" Nicole stated in the same manner. "Just… defeat… Eggman…"

By this point, the squirrel Princess could sense Nicole was on the verge of shutting down completely to being so low on power.

Sally then closed up Nicole's portable computer in order conserve her power, placing it on the outer part of her right boot.

After that was done, Sally thought to herself with deep worry in her facial expressions, _this isn't good… Nicole may have just sacrificed herself in order to save the very city that wanted her unplugged._

Moments later, Sally glanced over at Sonic, who was now on the floor, still unconscious, thinking again with deep concern, _Sonic… you've got to wake up soon. We need you now._

Just then, an idea came to Sally's head.

Wait a minute…since I need to be looking after him for now, maybe I could use this time to take advantage of Eggman's USB port nearby to help Nicole charge her power up somewhat.

However, Sally knew there were two high risks to that idea.

One, plugging in Nicole could give away their location to Eggman.

Or two… Eggman's network could transfer a virus to Nicole's computer system.

Nevertheless, Sally knew needed Nicole would not last much longer if she didn't get a charge and soon.

So, Sally decided to take the risk of getting caught for the sake of A.I friend, as she placed Nicole into the port again, where she then had Eggman's Death Egg power transferring to her.

As a safety precaution, Sally had placed Nicole's firewall at the max level in case Eggman's Death Egg did try to send her a virus.

As Sally had thought, plugging in Nicole did indeed give away their location.

This time, Eggman had been looking extensively for any signs of the Princess trying to hack into his system with Nicole again while flying in his Eggmobile.

Once he saw the blip on his radar map of his Death Egg, Eggman said with a sly grin, "Gotcha now, Princess."

However, before he could get too far into hunting her down, the video and audio clip of Lien-Da and Snively's conversation from several minutes ago abruptly got his attention while reviewing previous footage as a precaution.

As it turned out, he overheard the whole betrayal plan of theirs.

"So, those two renegades are actually going to try and bump me off after the Freedom Fighters are taken down?" Eggman muttered with a frown. "Well, I guess I'll just have to show them again who's in charge around here!"

While Eggman was still very tempted to go after Sally, he knew if he didn't deal with Lien-Da's meddling of his remote control, there was a solid chance they could indeed pull off this plan of theirs without too much difficulty.

Immediately, the mad doctor turned around and flew back towards to the control room to fix the problem.

If those two really want to take me out, they better learn more clever tactics when discussing plans to get rid of me. Eggman thought to himself. _Little do they realize… I have more tricks up my sleeve than they even realize._

Eggman's mind now flashed back to the present, as he had finally finished fixing the remote detonator.

"There…" he said with a grin, holding it firmly in his hand. "Now, once they serve their purpose of wiping out those meddlesome rodents, I'll wait until they get close together and then press the button, blowing them both up at the same time!"

Eggman soon cackled to himself, stating icily, "Two for the price of one… Ah, this conquest of mine has gone better than I ever thought possible…"

Meanwhile, Sally finally located the roboticizing ray in the Death Egg thanks to Nicole.

However, the only place to get to it was through the floorboards, which sadly were sealed shut.

At that moment, she realized she had to get some help in order to pull it off.

Sally knew just who to get that help from, as she quickly ran back towards the main hall, where she saw the battle at hand intensifying.

To put it lightly, all of her friends had their hands full.

Even with Sonic's help, Bunnie was having a very difficult time keeping this huge metal beast in check.

Amy too now struggled to keep Metal Sonic at bay. In spite of her valiant hammer swings, the blue spiky robot by this time had begun to turn it up on her, even knocking her to the ground when trying to spin dash her.

Thankfully, the spin dash only hit the handle of her hammer when she was knocked down.

Sally again began to sweat bullets, realizing she had to do something to help her out.

With no weapons at her disposal, the squirrel Princess did the next best thing… she would be a decoy.

While Metal Sonic attempted to take advantage of the pink hedgehog currently on the ground, Sally then whistled loudly at it to see if it would look at her

Thankfully, it did, as Metal Sonic soon attempted a spin dash aimed at her after the squirrel Princess gave the blue spiky robot a taunting gesture with her right hand

_Perfect…_ Sally thought. _This should buy Amy enough time to attack it from behind while I keep it busy._

She would indeed be right. Metal Sonic soon focused all of its attacks on Sally, trying to slam her to the ground.

As Sally had also thought, Amy did indeed finally came to her aid after two failed spin dashes by Metal Sonic, where she then clobbered it into the wall from behind underneath its metal chin with her Piko Hammer in one powerful swing.

Once it was knocked to the ground seriously stunned, Amy looked at Sally and said with a nod, "Thanks for bailing me out back there."

"No problem." Sally replied with a firm nod.

Sally then excused herself, telling the pink hedgehog, "Take it down while you have the chance."

"Wait, what are you going to be doing now?" Amy inquired curious.

"No time to explain." Sally again said. "Just please cover me in the meantime."

Seeing the need at hand, Amy did as she was told, now charging after the blue spiky robot while grasping her Piko Hammer firmly in her hands.

While this was going on, Bunnie finally managed to grab one of Silver Sonic III's metal blades sticking out with her robotic hand while it attempted to cut her and Sonic with a spin dash, where she then flung it against the wall in front of her, soon firing her laser cannon a split second later to intensify its damage.

Instantly, Silver Sonic III slammed against the corridor wall behind it with fury. It too was now seriously stunned from the impact. On top of that, its outer shell was damaged to the point of beginning to spark in and out.

"Way past cool move there, Bunnie." Sonic commented, watching nearby, giving a thumbs up.

Before the cyborg rabbit could reply back, Sally finally came running up to her, saying, "Bunnie, I need you to help me with something."

"What are you talking about?" she asked perplexed.

"I found the roboticizing ray." Sally explained. "But I'll need your strength to get through the floorboards."

"But… what about this nasty robot over here?" Bunnie inquired, still very nervous about it. "I can't just leave it here."

Sonic though eased her fears, replying confidently, "No prob, ladies. I'll keep this silver faker of mine busy in the meantime. You two do what you need to do."

"Are you sure you can handle that big robot all by yourself?" Sally asked, also concerned.

Sonic then gave her a wink, answering, "Just leave it to me, Sal. It's in the bag."

Sally though was still very hesitant to leave him alone, especially after the injury he had received earlier from the same robot.

Nonetheless, the squirrel princess decided there was no time to talk it over.

Before she knew it, it was soon less than two minutes from ignition once more. With Nicole currently in no condition to try and hack the system again, Sally realized it was now or never.

She and Bunnie then ran off towards the area Sally had been in before, running as fast as they can to beat the clock.

Moments later, Silver Sonic III soon regained its focus, with Sonic saying to it firmly while pointing a finger from his right hand, "Ok, bot, let's do this…!"

Meanwhile, Snively and Lien-Da now arrived near the main hall where the current battle was taking place.

Within seconds, they saw it from up-close.

Snively then commented with arched eyebrows, "Well, this is a bit bizarre… I only see the hedgehog and his bratty fan girl here. Where are the others?"

"Who cares?" Lien-Da replied with a smirk, holding her whip tightly in both hands. "The less interference for me, the better."

"You do realize those robots could turn on you if you try to attack one of those Freedom Fighters, right?" Snively reiterated. "I doubt my uncle programmed them to be neutral towards us."

"Relax…" Lien-Da replied confidently, now lightly tapping her leather whip against her right hand. "I know exactly how to time this so those bots will end up cutting those troublemakers to pieces even if they do turn on us."

Snively deep down didn't know how Lien-Da could be this confident, but decided to trust the red female echidna on her plan, whatever it may be…

Back in the other side of the Death Egg, Sally and Bunnie soon arrived at the spot Nicole had pinpointed earlier.

"You think you can break this open?" Sally inquired, now down on one knee to examine it closer.

"It'll be as easy as hogtying cattle." Bunnie replied with a grin, slightly tucking her cowboy hat down. "Just leave it to me.

And with that statement, the cyborg rabbit immediately began to tear into the floorboards.

She then dented it a few times by punching it with her fist before in order to get a big enough piece to come up in order to grab it.

Once that was accessible, Bunnie used every bit of her cybernetic strength to rip it apart.

Within five seconds, she was successful, grunting loudly after it was done.

"Ok, Sally girl…" Bunnie said, wiping her brow. "Get to it."

Sally quickly nodded her head, as she then crawled her way inside, saying to Bunnie before heading deeper in, "Keep a lookout for me in the meantime. No telling if Eggman or one of his goons will try to get the jump on me while I'm down here."

Bunnie unfortunately couldn't argue with that, as she did as she was told.

With now less than eighty seconds to go, Bunnie said to Sally once she was all the way in, "Hurry, Sally girl. Everyone's counting on us."

"I'll do my best." Sally replied firmly, now crawling inside.

Within ten seconds, she arrived at the main database of the roboticizing ray, soon examining it closely.

Sally then hooked up her A.I friend to get the schematics of Eggman's weapon, soon telling her afterwards, "Nicole, give me all the options available about halting or redirecting this weapon's aim if possible…"

"I'll see what I can do…" Nicole replied, still very weak.

In spite of the fact she was able to get a ten minute charge, her power was nowhere near it needed to be to be most effective.

Unfortunately for them, Sally would soon be right about the possibility of intruders.

Eggman finally had caught up to them from the north corridor, saying with an evil laugh, "Surprise, troublemakers!"

"Sally girl!" Bunnie shouted, turning around startled. "Eggman's found us!"

"Ah great…" Sally muttered. "Just what we need..."

Sally then said to the cyborg rabbit, "Try to hold him off in the meantime. Nicole is still analyzing at the moment."

"Will do." Bunnie replied, now turning towards Eggman in a fighting pose.

Eggman though was less than amused by this, soon stating, "You won't be stopping my ray this time! You might as well quit trying to delay the inevitable. Your loved ones will soon be my robotic slaves, so just get used to it!"

"Not on your life, you nasty scientist!" Bunnie exclaimed angrily. "I'll fight you to the death before we let you do that!"

Instantly, she flew in that air after him to try and damage his Eggmobile with her metal fist.

Unfortunately for Bunnie though, Eggman was ready for this possibility.

The second the cyborg rabbit got close enough to attack, Eggman quickly countered it, as he hit her with a large metal can in the her chest.

Due to the high velocity, the metal can knocked Bunnie backwards to the ground flat on her back.

Bunnie though got up, declaring more annoyed than hurt, "You're going to have to do better than throwing cans at me to win this battle."

"Don't worry, I intend to do just that." Eggman retorted with a sly grin.

Before Bunnie could figure out his words, the can did the talking for him, as a heavy plume of gas was released into around the room.

"What in tarnation?"

Within seconds, Bunnie soon discovered how powerful this gas really was.

She immediately began to cough heavily, trying to hold her breath and cover her eyes, commenting in huge discomfort, "Oh mah stars! That nasty Eggman has thought of everything!"

Bunnie then tried to warn Sally of his latest trap, but was unable to, as Eggman soon released a can of tear gas under the floorboards where she currently was.

Within seconds, gas began fill the area around Sally.

Once it came close to her, Sally gasped in horror, asking, "What is that?"

"My sensors are detecting a non-lethal lachrymator gas." Nicole explained weakly.

"Tear gas!" Sally exclaimed.

Like Bunnie, she too covered her mouth to try and not inhale the fumes.

However, that was easier said than done. It soon enveloped her, eventually making the squirrel Princes also cough heavily, as well as heavily irritating her eyes and lungs.

Now nearly blinded by the gas, Sally had no choice to but to get out there of risk further injury to her body.

Even Bunnie, who wasn't enveloped, had her vision temporarily blinded.

Eggman meanwhile watched their suffering with complete glee on his face. It warmed the goggles of his heart to see his enemies in a state of agony.

By this time, Sally finally got out of from underneath the floorboards. Unfortunately though, like Bunnie, her vision too was heavily affected by the gas.

Eggman then smirked at their painful expression on their faces, stating with an evil grin, "Pathetic rodents… did you really think I would let you stop me so easily this time?"

Sally though paid no attention his words, but instead glared at him angrily.

"I bet you really feel good now that you didn't kill me off when you had the chance, don't you, Princess?" Eggman added, rubbing that mistake of hers in deeply.

"You… sick… Overlander…" Sally stated, still coughing a bit while seething, clutching her fist in anger.

"Save your big speeches for later, rodent" Eggman retorted. "Especially after all those you know and love down below will be under my command."

Still wanting to rub it in, Eggman added a brief period later, "Tell me, Princess, how does it feel to know you failed to protect your loved ones? Does it hurt really bad inside?"

Again, Sally wouldn't bite on him trying to rile her up.

Eggman though wasn't about to let up, boasting arrogantly, "Even if you did manage to stop that wretched wart hog from getting cut up by my Silver Sonic III when he fell unconscious, you unfortunately only delayed his inevitable demise when you chose to leave him by himself to carry out the task of defeating it alone."

Sally in a way knew he was right, but wasn't about to concede that point to the mad doctor.

With less than forty five seconds to go, their chances of stopping Eggman's roboticizing ray was looking very grim. Their vision was still heavily blinded from the effects of the dissipating tear gas.

Nevertheless, the fight in either of them wasn't even close to being done.

Eggman then said to brag further, "You know, I would take both of you out now, seeing how easy it would be… But if I did that, I wouldn't get the privilege of seeing the look on your faces when you discover your conquest to stop me was all in vain."

That last statement finally set off the cyborg rabbit to take drastic measures.

In spite of her temporary blindness, Bunnie wasn't about to let him win, especially not after all the salt he rubbed in their emotional wounds.

She then crawled down into the spot where Sally was from before, dumbfounding Eggman, as well as Sally, who managed to see it as well.

"What do you think you're going, rodent?" Eggman demanded.

Bunnie though didn't answer him, as she crawled towards the spot where the weapon was being held, feeling her way inside due to her vision being 70% blinded.

Eggman's mood instantly changed, as he shouted at the cyborg rabbit, "You're wasting your time! You cannot stop my cannon from firing, so don't even bother!"

_That's what you think, you nasty scientist…_ Bunnie thought to herself firmly.

Finally, she was able to get close enough to feel where the cannon currently were located.

There was now only twenty five seconds left on the timer.

Now deeply annoyed and irritated, Eggman again fired another tear gas can aimed at hole in the floorboards from his Eggmobile to halt Bunnie in her tracks.

Sally during this time was deeply puzzled by what her best friend was trying to do. Not to mention the irritation in her eyes from the tear gas was still very strong.

Within two seconds, the cyborg rabbit saw more gas filling the area.

Nevertheless, she wasn't about to quit now, especially with time running out.

Bunnie then attempted to punch the cannon with her robotic fists again and again to try and weaken its outer structure.

However, Bunnie wouldn't get to punch it for too long, as the gas by now had completely enveloped her.

Even so, the cyborg rabbit kept her composure, now placing a hand over her mouth and nose to hold her breath, as well as shutting irritated eyes shut to minimize any further impact to her eyes and lungs.

"Just give up already!" Eggman shouted at her, now deeply annoyed. "You honestly think you can do anything now I've impaired your vision and lung function?"

_I won't let you get away with this, Eggman…_ Bunnie thought to herself firmly.

Bunnie then crawled toward the opening in the floorboards again, but stopped in her tracks once she felt the wall in front of it.

Still fighting the gas, the cyborg rabbit now pointed her laser cannon towards the roboticizing cannon, thinking again, I've got one shot. Here's goes nothing.

With less than ten seconds left, Bunnie attempted to fire a laser blast at maximum power.

In spite of the fact she had been weakened by using two of them already, Bunnie knew she had no choice now.

And so, she hunkered down and fired again, giving it everything she had.

While this was going on, the timer finally hit zero.

Eggman now grinned evilly, saying to Sally, "So much for trying to delay the inevitable, Princess… Your pathetic attempt to save your friends was all for naught."

And with that statement, the mad doctor hit the button, attempting to roboticize the citizens of New Mobotropolis.

Sally instantly gasped in horror, as her heart sank at the horror of what would happen next.

However, little did Eggman realize, Bunnie had fired a full powered laser blast a split second before ignition.

This in turn heavily damaged his new secret weapon, causing it to heavily spark and short circuit.

To make matters worse for him, the damage to the robotcizing ray intensified during the command to initiate ignition, making it short circuit even further.

"What's going on here?" Eggman demanded with a frown. "Why isn't the cannon firing?"

Eggman soon found out, as Bunnie by this time slowly but surely crawled out from underneath the floorboards as fast as she could.

Not even two seconds later, the roboticizing ray gun instantly exploded intensely from the damage done to it earlier. It was so big, even Bunnie was sent flying into the air.

"Bunnie!" Sally exclaimed while watching in horror as she fell to the ground flat on her back in a thud.

In a flash, Eggman's emotions changed again, from perplexion to complete rage.

"ARRGGHHHH!" he shouted, raising his fists in anger. "You vile rodents! How could you have destroyed my roboticizing cannon? IT'S JUST NOT POSSIBLE!"

Sally though paid no attention to his temper tantrum, now running to Bunnie's side.

Eggman now glared at the two Freedom Fighters, shouting again while pointing a finger, "That does it! I'm not holding anything back on you rodents any longer! I'm going to make your deaths for daring to interfere with my plans again a very painful one!"

Again, Sally paid no attention to his words, asking, "Bunnie, you all right?"

Bunnie unfortunately couldn't respond in time, as Sally soon heard Eggman hovering towards them, making her glance from behind.

Within moments, he fired another two cans of tear gas at them to try and halt them in their tracks again.

This time though, Sally was ready for this attack of Eggman's.

When the cans hit the ground, the squirrel Princess quickly picked reacted, as she then picked them up off the ground before they could spray much gas into the air, now tossing them back at Eggman.

"What the…?"

Sally heaved the cans directly at Eggman's head, trying to dent his face in.

Since she had quickly reacted, the mad doctor didn't get a chance to counter it. The first can ended up hitting him hard in the right cheek, putting a big bruise there.

"Ow! Why you little…!"

Fortunately for Eggman, he was able to evade the second can aimed at him. Nevertheless, the first can that hit him in the face and ended up bouncing in his Eggmobile soon began to envelop him, now making the mad doctor cough heavily, while also clinching his eyes in pain.

"Ah, curse you, Princess!" he stated in anger, still coughing after tossing the can behind him.

He then added with seething, "Don't you dare get too comfortable! This battle of ours isn't over by a long shot!"

With his vision deeply affected, Eggman decided to retreat for now.

Once he left the area, Sally took a deep sigh of relief, saying while wiping the sweat from her brow, "That was a close one…"

Thankfully by this time, their vision was starting to return to normal, though they still felt the effects of the gas somewhat.

She then turned back to Bunnie, who was now on her knees trying to stand, where she soon asked her, "How you feeling?"

"I'll be ok…" Bunnie replied weakly, trying to act tough "Don't worry about me."

The cyborg rabbit soon stood up, stating firmly, "C'mon, let's finish the job we started, Sally girl."

Sally nodded her head, saying back, "Right…"

And with that statement, the two of them headed back towards to the corridor where their comrades were to give them a hand.

As they did so, Bunnie asked Sally, "I wonder why Eggman retreated so quickly… You'd think he would have put up more of a fight then that."

"Maybe he's out of any clever tricks at the moment." Sally explained, trying to make sense out of this move herself.

"I don't know… I just don't believe Eggman is out of nasty traps for us just like that." Bunnie said, now deeply suspicious.

Sally sadly couldn't argue with that either. She knew Eggman would fight to the bitter end before throwing in the towel.

Seconds later, the two of them finally made it back to the room where Amy and Sonic currently were in.

As Eggman had said, the blue hedgehog did indeed have a whale of a time trying to keep Silver Sonic III in check by himself.

Even Amy was now starting to get weary from trying to destroy Metal Sonic with her Piko Hammer.

"C'mon, Sally girl…" Bunnie encouraged loudly with her fits pumped. "Let's help em finish off these nasty bots!"

Sally again nodded her head, now preparing to do just that.

However, both gals soon discovered Eggman indeed did have other plans.

Just then, a huge rumbling occurred in the Death Egg, almost knocking them and the others off their feet.

"What in tarnation was that?" Bunnie asked with fear in her facial expressions.

Even Snively and Lien-Da, who were within seconds of entering the battle before Sally and Bunnie returned, also looked on deeply baffled.

All of them though soon found out, as Eggman said over the PA loudly while seething, "You wretched Freedom Fighters…! I never thought it was possible for you to destroy my roboticizing ray, especially after the extra detail I went in formulating this plan…"

He then added after a brief pause, "Nevertheless, I had planned ahead, just in case such a circumstance had happened… and this backup plan of mine is even more devastating than my original one."

Instantly, Sally's heart sank, as she had inkling what he was referring to.

"Since you wouldn't let me roboticize your precious population, I'll just vaporize it instead!" Eggman shouted after a brief pause.

Within moments, every Freedom Fighter gasped in horror, as Eggman soon added with a hearty laugh, "Good luck trying to find me! Once my backup Death Egg cannon is fully charged up, New Mobotropolis will be nothing but a barren wasteland! HA HA HA! Ta ta…"

And with that statement, he cut off the feed.

"I was right…" Bunnie said with a heavy frown. "He didn't retreat for nothing!"

"I should have seen this coming…" Sally added, now starting to sweat bullets again.

"Never mind that…" Bunnie stated with anger. "How are we going to find him in time before he fires that newfangled cannon of his?"

"Also, who do we dare send after him especially with these two robots still active?" Sally inquired, now deeply torn inside.

Sonic, who was still in heavy fight with Silver Sonic III, shouted to the squirrel Princess once he saw her state of despair, "Go after Eggbelly, Sal! I'll be ok for now."

"But Sonic… your head injury." Sally protested, now looking at him deeply worried. "I can't risk you getting hurt worse."

"You're going to have to…" Sonic replied firmly to her. "Otherwise he's going to kill the citizens of New Mobotropolis!"

Sally was about to argue further, when Bunnie told her, "He's right, Sally girl. I'll stay behind and help him out for the time being."

With time again not on their side, the squirrel Princess realized there wasn't much choice in the matter.

Bunnie then added to Sally to reassure her further, "Once Sugarhog and I trash Silver Sonic III; I'll come give you hand. In the meantime, you've gotta stop that nasty mad scientist before it's too late."

Sally now nodded her head in compliance, as she quickly ran off with Bunnie shouting at her in a cheer from a distance, "Good luck, Sally girl. Go give em what for!"

And with statement, Bunnie turned back to help the blue hedgehog again.

As for Snively and Lien-Da, they now had mixed emotions about Eggman's latest plan to put it lightly.

"Your uncle is really off his rocker this time." Lien Da commented with arched eyebrows at the small lackey. "I had no idea he had an idea like this cooked up."

"Neither did I." Snively replied, sighing while shaking his head. "Although I suppose I shouldn't be surprised anymore by anything that lunatic does, being around him for this long…"

"Can this ship even handle a charged up ray blast that big?" Lien-Da inquired with deep concern.

"Knowing my uncle… who can say for sure?" Snively answered sullenly.

To put it lightly, Eggman's actions had now put the red female echidna on edge emotionally, even wondering if the blast would indeed backfire and end up blowing up the entire Death Egg to bits due to overload.

Nevertheless, Lien-Da decided to worry about that later and take care of business at hand.

Sally meanwhile ran as fast as she could, asking her A.I best friend, "Nicole, try to pinpoint Eggman's location from where he transmitted that PA message a while ago."

"Attempting to pinpoint now." Nicole replied softly, soon doing a quick scan of the Death Egg's electronic activities.

Sally then thought with vigor as she ran, _Eggman, you will not succeed in blowing up my city again! This time, I'll stop you even if it means I have to sacrifice my life in order to do so!_

Sally deep down had a hunch it may come to that, but resolved nonetheless to fight to the finish for the sake of her citizens regardless

"As Princess of Mobius, it is my job to do all I can to ensure their safety." Sally said to herself softly. She then added taking a deep breath to try and calm her nerves, "Ok, here goes nothing!"

Back in the main hall of the Death Egg, the fight continued between the three Freedom Fighters and Eggman's two Sonic robots.

As before, Sonic and Bunnie did everything in their power to manhandle Silver Sonic III.

That however, proved easier said than done. With it being gigantic and having blades stick out of its shell when it spin dashed, trying to keep it under wraps continued to be a huge undertaking.

Even Amy found herself unable to fend off Metal Sonic by herself for much longer due to her increasing fatigue.

It soon came to a point that Sonic knew he was going to have to alternate in targeting Eggman's robots with his attacks or risk one of them getting seriously injured.

At first though, he hesitated due to fear the Silver Sonic III would critically injure Bunnie first if he didn't keep close to her side.

Nevertheless, Bunnie even noticed Amy's struggling mightily, which she soon said to Sonic firmly after the blue spiky knocked to the ground, "Give Amy girl a hand, Sugarhog. I'll be ok for the time being."

"But… I…"

Even at that moment, Sonic fought within himself of what to do.

"Help her!" Bunnie ordered firmly with a rebuking glare a split second later. "That nasty blue Sonic bot is going to hurt her badly if you don't stop standing around!"

Just then, Bunnie saw Silver Sonic III attempting to attack with another spin dash at her.

"Oh no you don't!" the cyborg rabbit responded, blasting off with her rocket legs towards the gigantic silver Sonic robot.

In spite of the danger of getting hit by the rotating blades, Bunnie knew it was a risk she had to take.

Thankfully, her bold move paid off, as she now used her robotic legs after shutting off her rocket boosters to slam into Silver Sonic III, resulting in it being violently rammed against the wall.

Sonic meanwhile quickly glanced over at saw Metal Sonic trying cut up Amy with its metal spikes.

As it turned out, the pink hedgehog again was holding it back as hard as she could with the stick end of her Piko Hammer.

Sonic then finally sprang into action, where he soon spun into a ball and hit Metal Sonic with a well-timed spin dash before it could hurt injure Amy.

Like Bunnie, the blue hedgehog too was able to ram this robot into the wall from behind.

"It's about time, Sonikku!" Amy scolded with a frown, now standing up. "That robot was about to make a hedgehog filet out of me."

"Sorry about that…" Sonic replied with a bit of a guilty look on his face.

Unfortunately though, before he and Amy could attack Metal Sonic further, Sonic soon heard a loud grunt from behind, making him glance from behind.

Again, Bunnie found herself struggling to keep Silver Sonic III at bay, as she was now trying to grab one of its spinning blades with her robotic arm and heave it against the wall again.

"Ah, man…" Sonic muttered to himself. "I was afraid of this."

He then ran back towards Amy, where she soon demanded of him, "Hey, where are you going?"

"I'm sorry, Amy, but Bunnie needs my assistance at the moment." Sonic answered while running towards the other side of the room. "I'll be back in a bit."

Amy would have protested further, but soon saw Bunnie's predicament herself.

The pink hedgehog then sighed in frustration and commented, "I guess I'll have to take care of Metal Sonic by myself again…"

While this was going on, Nicole soon reported back to Sally, "I'm sorry, but I was unable to determine the location of where Eggman made that announcement."

"I was afraid of that…" Sally stated, shaking her head.

Moments later, the squirrel Princess realized there was only one alternative solution.

She then found a USB port up ahead and plugged the A.I lynx in it, saying, "Nicole, try to see if you can find which room has been using the most power within the last five minutes."

Nicole did as she asked, searching fervently with her A.I abilities.

However, when she got back her results, Sally's eyebrows instantly arched.

"What? This… this can't be for real." Sally stated in disbelief.

As it turned out, there were three rooms blinking around the Death Egg's schematics on Nicole's screen.

"Nicole, can you decipher which of these rooms is the right one?" Sally inquired.

"I unfortunately cannot…" Nicole stated weakly. "It looks like Eggman has the most frequent signal bouncing off of three different areas in order to confuse you."

"That can only mean one thing…" Sally stated with a frown on her face. "He's trying to set me up into another trap."

Instantly, images of the turret gun trap flashed through her mind, making her tense up inside.

Nevertheless, Sally wasn't about to back down in spite of that risk again. So, she put her thinking cap on and began to try and decipher the code.

"Ok…" she said, furrowing her brow further. "The three blinks are coming from the engine room in the middle, the far right side of the Death Egg and in the storage room on the very bottom of the ship."

Not surprisingly, Sally found the code harder to decipher than she thought it would be.

After thinking it over for a minute, Sally said to herself, "Let's see… it can't be the far right since I was in that part of the ship before. And it's more than likely not in the storage room since that's just a room with his extra supplies…

She then said with a grin, "In that case, it must be in the engine room."

And with that statement, Sally ran towards that area.

Eggman meanwhile clapped his hands in glee after overhearing it from his room, saying with a smirk, "Ha! I knew that meddling Princess would fall for my trap. She must think I'm pretty stupid to make it that obvious."

Meanwhile, Nicole soon asked her while she ran, "Are you sure it's that simple? I have a feeling Eggman wouldn't make his location that easy to decipher."

"Trust me, Nicole." Sally replied with a confident expression on her face, soon winking at her A.I best friend. "I have a plan."

Once the squirrel princess entered the nearest elevator to head downstairs, Sally said to Nicole, "I'm going to need your help with something right now. Are you up to it?"

"I'll do what I can." Nicole replied. "What do you need from me?"

Two minutes later, the Death Egg's vaporizing cannon was now 66% charged, where it continued to climb one percent every five seconds.

Eggman meanwhile kept an eye on his monitors in the room, hoping to catch Sally getting blasted in his latest trap.

Ten seconds soon passed, and there he saw Sally exiting the elevator, now running into the engine room.

"Yes… keep going, Princess." Eggman said with a sneer, rubbing his hands together. "You'll find yourself in an even worse predicament than before…"

Not long after this, Sally finally ran into the engine room, and there Eggman's latest trap sprung.

This time, Eggman had three turret guns aimed at her, one from behind, one in front of her, and one to the left.

Sally instantly turned around in a panic after seeing this, with Eggman commented with a smirk on his face, "Say cheese, rodent."

And with that statement, the three turret guns each fired three rounds in successive fashion.

Within seconds, the squirrel Princess fell to the ground in a bloody heap.

Eggman immediately pumped his fists victory, shouting with glee, "YES! YES! YES! I got her this time!"

Seeing her down on the ground dead fired up the mad doctor even more, saying, "Now… with her out of the way, nobody will dare to get in the way of my plans to vaporize New Mobotropolis."

Forty-five seconds soon passed, with Eggman's cannon now at 75% charged.

Deep down, Eggman was annoyed it was taking this long, but decided it was worth the wait, stating euphorically, "In another two minutes, my revenge against those filthy Mobians will finally be complete!

He then added now getting drunk on his own ego while raising his fists in the air again, "Victory will soon be mine!"

Instantly, he began to laugh incessantly like an insane mad man.

However, he wouldn't be able to laugh for long.

Out of the corner of his eye, his biggest problem at the moment would soon coming true before his very eyes.

Before he could turn his head, the mad doctor was rammed hard in the gut with an elbow, abruptly knocking him out of his chair and onto the floor in a heap.

When Eggman finally looked up to see who had jarred him so hard, his jaw almost dropped to the ground.

"YOU…?"

The one he saw… was none other than Princess Sally, now towering over him with a fierce glare.

Instantly, Eggman stuttered in disbelief, muttering in anger, "I…impossible! I saw you get mowed down by three turret guns!"

"Or you thought you did…" Sally retorted firmly.

"There's no way you could have survived that attack!" Eggman declared, soon standing up disgusted. "You were hit with at least a dozen bullets."

"That image you saw in the engine room wasn't me, Eggman." Sally explained firmly. "It was a decoy to throw you off your guard."

"How could you make a clone of yourself?" Eggman demanded further. "That isn't even possible!"

"It is when you have a super A.I computer on your side." Sally retorted again, now flashing a smirk at him.

In that moment, Eggman quickly figured out what she was trying to say.

"You mean… that was…?"

"Bingo, Doctor."

As it turned out, Sally had Nicole turn herself into a nanite clone of the Princess for about ten seconds, pretending to get hit and then playing dead when the turret bullets blasted her.

Sally was betting deep down if Eggman saw her get mowed down on his video screen, he would immediately turn away from the cameras and focus on his cannon instead.

Sure enough, her theory would be proven right.

"You little pest!" Eggman declared seething, feeling humiliated inside. "How dare you take full advantage of my overpersuit to finish you off!"

"It's your own fault, Eggman." Sally shot back. "You just don't when to stop celebrating when you should be tying up any loose ends!"

By this time, the mad doctor completely lost his cool, shouting at the squirrel Princess while pointing a finger in his face, "It doesn't matter! You're still too late to stop me from carrying out my latest plan to eradicate your kind!"

"That's what you think, Doctor." Sally countered. "I'll stop you even it means having to sacrifice my life in the process."

"Good…!" Eggman stated loudly. "Because I assure you it will indeed cost you that if you dare to continue to meddle in my affairs!"

Sally then looked at the screen, now seeing it at 80%. At first, she felt a bit panicked inside, but soon composed herself, thinking, _I can't back down now… I've come too far to let Eggman win in the end._

"Prepare yourself, Eggman." Sally declared boldly, now getting into a fighting pose. "Judgment for your crimes against Mobius will soon be upon you."

"You talk big," Eggman shot back, "but let's see if you're bold enough to back it up."

With time desperately running out, Sally charged towards him, now fully determined to take him down.

Eggman soon did likewise, as he was just as determined to stop her from interfering any longer.

To be continued...


	2. Part 2

Not long after this, Sally finally ran into the engine room, and there Eggman's latest trap sprung. This time, Eggman had three turret guns aimed at her, one from behind, one in front of her, and one to the left.

Sally instantly turned around in a panic after seeing this, with Eggman commenting with a smirk on his face, "Say cheese, rodent."

And with that statement, the three turret guns each fired three rounds in successive fashion.

Within seconds, the squirrel Princess fell to the ground in a bloody heap. Eggman immediately pumped his fists victory, shouting with glee, "YES! YES! YES! I got her this time!"

Seeing her down on the ground dead fired up the mad doctor even more, saying, "Now… with her out of the way, nobody will dare to get in the way of my plans to vaporize New Mobotropolis."

Forty-five seconds soon passed, with Eggman's cannon now at 75% charged.

Deep down, Eggman was annoyed it was taking this long, but decided it was worth the wait, stating euphorically, "In another five minutes, my revenge against those filthy Mobians will finally be complete!

He then added now getting drunk on his own ego while raising his fists in the air again, "Victory will soon be mine!"

Instantly, he began to laugh incessantly like an insane mad man.

However, he wouldn't be able to laugh for long.

Out of the corner of his eye, his biggest problem at the moment would soon coming true before his very eyes. Before he could turn his head, the mad doctor was rammed hard in the gut with an elbow, abruptly knocking him out of his chair and onto the floor in a heap, now flat on his back.

When Eggman finally looked up to see who had jarred him so hard, his jaw almost dropped to the ground.

"YOU…?"

The one he saw… was none other than Princess Sally, now towering over him with a fierce glare.

Instantly, Eggman stuttered in disbelief, muttering in anger, "I…impossible! I saw you get mowed down by three turret guns!"

"Or you thought you did…" Sally retorted firmly.

"There's no way you could have survived that attack!" Eggman declared, soon standing up disgusted. "You were hit with at least a dozen bullets."

"That image you saw in the engine room wasn't me, Eggman." Sally explained firmly. "It was a decoy to throw you off your guard."

"How could you make a clone of yourself?" Eggman demanded further. "That isn't even possible!"

"It is when you have a super A.I computer on your side." Sally retorted again, now flashing a smirk at him.

In that moment, Eggman quickly figured out what she was trying to say.

"You mean… that was…?"

"Bingo, Doctor."

As it turned out, Sally had Nicole turn herself into a temporary nanite clone of the Princess, pretending to get hit and play dead when the turret bullets blasted her.

Sally was betting deep down if Eggman saw her get mowed down on his video screen, he would immediately turn away from the cameras and focus on his cannon instead.

Sure enough, her theory was proven correct.

"You little pest!" Eggman declared seething, feeling humiliated inside. "How dare you take full advantage of my overpersuit to finish you off!"

"It's your own fault, Eggman." Sally shot back. "You just don't when to stop celebrating when you should be tying up any loose ends!"

By this time, the mad doctor completely lost his cool, shouting at the squirrel Princess while pointing a finger in his face, "It doesn't matter! You're still too late to stop me from carrying out my latest plan to eradicate your kind!"

"That's what you think, Doctor." Sally countered. "I'll stop you even it means having to sacrifice my life in the process."

"Good…!" Eggman stated loudly. "Because I assure you it will indeed cost you that if you dare to continue to meddle in my affairs!"

Sally then looked at the screen, now seeing it at 80%. At first, she felt a bit panicked inside, but soon composed herself, thinking, I can't back down now… I've come too far to let Eggman win in the end.

"Prepare yourself, Eggman." Sally declared boldly, now getting into a fighting pose. "Judgment for your crimes against Mobius will soon be upon you."

"You talk big," Eggman shot back, "but let's see if you're bold enough to back it up."

With time running out, Sally charged towards him, now fully determined to take him down.

Eggman soon did likewise, as he was just as determined to stop her from interfering any longer.

Meanwhile outside the Death Egg, Antoine in the Freedom Fighter Special and Tails in the Tornado continued to fly around it to hopefully draw enough attention away from the Freedom Fighters currently inside Eggman's ship that they could do some major damage.

Sadly, that would not be the case.

Even though lasers continued to shoot at their aircrafts in rapid succession, their patterns were quickly becoming quite predictable, making both realize Eggman was focusing more on the inside than the outside.

To make things even more complicated, Antoine sadly had to keep one eye on Geoffrey in the cargo area from time to time. Even though he was well tied down at the moment before Bunnie and Amy made their move, the French coyote did not trust the traitorous skunk back there one iota.

As for the Freedom Fighters inside, their battle with their foes would only get more intense from this point on. And no more was that fact more evident than the struggle for supremacy of Mobius between Princess Sally and Dr. Eggman. With the lives of the citizens of New Mobotropolis clearly hanging in the balance, these two titan leaders would hold nothing back.

As they ran closer to each other to attack, Eggman unwisely made the first move, attempting to use his larger mass to kick the squirrel Princess in the face once she was within three feet of him.

Sally though was ready for it. The split second his foot came towards her, she quickly reacted, sliding underneath it like a baseball player, missing his kick by mere inches.  
>Then, to counter his aggressive attack, she used her right foot while sliding to trip him up onto the ground.<p>

Thanks to her fast reflexes, Sally pulled off the move brilliantly, knocking Eggman flat on his face. Even so, the mad doctor didn't stay down for long. He quickly stood up with a fierce growl on his face, where he instantly went on the offensive again, now swinging both of his fists again and again at Sally as hard as he could.

But again, Sally kept her composure, swinging her head from head side to side to evade every swing. Within ten seconds of his constant barrage of punches, Sally saw him beginning to slow down somewhat due to slight fatigue. And that's when she made her move.

When the next punch came, Sally quickly grabbed his right hand with her left and then quickly countered with a strong uppercut punch underneath his chin to stun him. The split second he began to slightly stagger back, the squirrel Princess immediately went on the offensive.

With speed and firm determination in her eyes, she hit the mad doctor with everything she had, attacking with quick karate kicks to his gut again and again. She even delivered a few punches to his mid-section to try and knock the wind out of him.

After hitting him a half a dozen times, the squirrel Princess decided to go for the knockout punch, as she then ran towards him, jumping on top of the desk where the main computer in the room was. Within moments, she quickly lunged herself towards the mad doctor at full speed, leaning fully with her right elbow.

Eggman during this time finally regained his senses after shaking his head a few times. However, it came too little, too late. Before he could even react, Sally timed her attack to near perfection, hitting him squarely between the eyes with her right elbow.

Instantly, Eggman crashed to the ground in a heap, now seriously dazed, groaning in pain.

Seeing him down for the moment, Sally quickly took complete advantage of the opportunity, grabbing Nicole from her right boot and hooking up the A.I lynx to Eggman's main computer that would fire the Death Egg Cannon.

Thankfully, Sally was able to do this inspite of the fact most of the computer was encased with a strong plexiglass case around it, only leaving the USB ports and several main buttons out in the open.

Once she was in place and connected, Sally told her, "Nicole, try to stop the charging process if possible."

However, due to her being very weak from using a temporarily nanite form not even two minutes ago, Nicole replied, "I'll do the best I can, Sally, but I doubt I can do much in my state at the moment."

Sally did understand this unfortunately, replying with a saddened nod, I know. Just… do what you can, my friend. If you can't stop it, then… we'll think of something else."

Moments later, the squirrel princess looked up to see the charging percentage. It was now at 87% and climbing. Unfortunately though, Sally wouldn't be able to look at it for long, as she heard Nicole say softly, "Watch out…"

Sally then turned to her head to see what she was referring to, and there she saw Eggman within seconds of attacking her. With little time to react, Sally slid Nicole's portable computer onto the desk as far as it would go without disconnecting her wires.

In a bittersweet sequence, Sally was able to keep Eggman for ripping out her connecting wires, but the squirrel princess sadly took the full brunt of his move, as she was slammed hard into the wall from behind with his full body mass.

Not surprisingly, Sally was heavily dazed from the attack, as her back of her head and back took the full brunt of it.

Eggman then said her with contempt in his voice after standing up, "Pathetic Princess… You actually thought that was enough to take me down? Fool!"

As Sally groaned loudly in pain while her head was tilted towards the ground, Eggman added with full arrogance, "Get it through your thick skull, you despicable rodent... you will not stop me this time! I will win this war and I will conquer your kind whether you like it or not!"

"And just to show you how futile your attempts were to beat me," Eggman said after a brief pause, "I'm going to smash your precious A.I computer box while you watch with my big right foot!"

And with that statement, the mad doctor walked towards Nicole to deal with her appropriately.

Sally meanwhile finally cleared her head a second later, and there she saw him picking up Nicole to toss her portable computer shell onto the floor.

"NO!" she shouted.

In a flash of rage, Sally charged towards him as fast as she could, splitting headache and all. Eggman however just looked on with a sly grin, as he was planning to toy with the squirrel princes to the last second for kicks.

Unfortunately for Eggman, Sally again outsmarted the mad doctor, as she kicked the rolling chair nearby him with all her strength he had used to sit down when using his computer.

In a twist of irony, Eggman was now the one being sent crashing into the wall, as the rolling chair quickly collected him while rolling at top speed, causing him to abruptly drop Nicole before he could disconnect her from the computer.

Within seconds, he violently slammed into the wall from behind with fury, where he too was now heavily stunned from the collision.

Even then, Sally wouldn't ease up, now running towards him with her teeth clinched, performing a high flying roundhouse kick to his forehead. Again, Eggman felt the full impact of her attack, stunning him further.

However, when she tried a second one, Eggman finally reacted, now grabbing the same chair Sally had used earlier to block her foot. Once she landed the ground, Eggman then grabbed the chair and held it high in the air, shouting, "I'll make you pay for this, you wretched rodent!

With full vigor in his eyes, the mad doctor quickly swung his chair at the squirrel princess as hard and as violently as he could at her to knock her out cold. Sally though kept her composure even then, as she used her swift reflexes to evade every swing that came flying in towards her.

She ducked underneath one, moved her head from side to side when another two came, jumped back after a fourth swing, even eventually sliding in-between his legs a second time when he tried to use the chair like a club to smash her skull in.

Sally thankfully got back on her feet before Eggman could turn around, but even after he did, he glared at her with fury, proclaiming boldly while clutching the chair in his hands again, "No matter what you do, Princess, when it's all said and done, this day will belong to me!"

After he took another violent swing at her and missed, Sally finally made her next move. She then ran towards him after evading another low swing, jumping as high as she could into air, where she quickly punched him in the gut with her right hand with all her might to try and stun him.

Eggman indeed recoiled from the attack, now staggering backwards a couple of feet.

Seeing a golden opportunity, the squirrel Princess quickly sprung into action yet again, jumping on top of the computer desk and used its elevation to her advantage, this time hitting him with a strong roundhouse kick to his chin.

Since Eggman was already wobbly from the previous attack, he again crashed to the floor in a heap, even abruptly dropping the chair.

Sally then turned back to Nicole while the mad doctor groaned in pain, asking, "Any luck?"

"None so far…" Nicole replied softly. "Eggman has heavily encrypted the program to the firing mechanism even more than last time."

"I should have expected this…" Sally stated with a sigh, shaking her head.

With the charging percentage now at 90%, the squirrel Princess knew time was running out. If there were any methods to stopping it, it had to be now.

Unfortunately, Sally could not think of any, even when she racked her brain long and hard. She thought to herself, C'mon, Sally… think! You cannot let Eggman win, not after everything you've been through!

Sally however wouldn't to get think for much longer, as Eggman now stood up and charged towards her again, holding the same chair up high with a vicious growl. This time though, he wasn't aiming for Sally, but at Nicole.

Forced to think fast, Sally realized she would have to put herself in harm's way to protect her best A.I friend from getting smashed. And so, she did.

Eggman then took a wide violent baseball swing to try and obliterate Nicole's portable computer shell to pieces. Nevertheless, Sally stepped in front of it, using her hands to block the chair. Using her keen martial arts training, the squirrel Princess was able to firmly grab the top end of it with both hands, though it caused a moderate bit of pain to her palms since Eggman had swung so strongly.

Even so, Sally refused to back down. She continued to hold onto the chair strongly to keep the mad doctor off of Nicole.

Eggman at first tried to overpower Sally in order subdue her to the ground, but failed. No matter how much muscle he used from his upper body, the squirrel Princess would not quit, not even when her palms and knees began to ache all over.

As the two of them continued to groan while they struggled to overpower the other, Eggman again tried to intimidate her, saying, "If you don't let go, I swear I'm going to break your skull with this chair as soon as I overpower you."

Sally didn't even bat an eye, retorting with a groan, "Save your breath, Doctor. Nothing you say is going to stop me from saving my people from your psychotic plans."

Seeing she was dead serious about her intentions, Eggman immediately went onto Plan B. He then swung his right foot directly at the front of her face in order to get her flinch. Sally however kept her composure, as she moved her head to the left to miss his attack while still firmly holding onto the chair.

Eggman immediately tried again, this time using his left foot. Again, Sally was able to outwit him, now moving her head to the right.

Now getting very frustrated, the mad doctor attempted to attack more quickly and fervently. He then swung each of his feet, one swing at time in rapid succession, trying as hard as he could to smack her in the face.

Inspite of his best efforts, he would not succeed. No matter how many times he swung, even when tried swinging each foot at random, Sally kept outwitting his attacks, moving her head left or right when necessary.

Eggman again soon began to show some fatigue after rapid fire swings, which Sally immediately pounced on when she saw an opening. This time, she took a risk, as she quickly took her right hand off the chair a split second after Eggman swung his left foot, punching him directly in the gut as hard as she could.

Her risky move thankfully paid off, as Eggman soon recoiled again from the blow, staggering back a couple of feet. Sally meanwhile took full advantage of his stunned condition, now abruptly taking the chair out of his hands.

"Now it's your turn to get the chair, Doctor!" Sally declared.

And with that fiery statement, the squirrel Princess unloaded on the mad doctor, hitting him as hard as she could with his computer chair.

Running on pure adrenaline now, Sally smacked Eggman around with complete fury. She hit him in the gut several times; a couple more in the mid section, where she then went for the finishing blow soon after, swinging the top end of it directly underneath his chin.

Since Sally had swung with all her might, Eggman was knocked completely off his feet once the chair collided with his face, where he soon went flying backwards, crashing hard onto the floor about seven feet away, heavily stunned. As an added bonus, her chair attack even managed to cut the top of chin, causing it to bleed somewhat.

Sally meanwhile turned back to look at the screen after placing the chair on the ground after taking a couple of deep breaths, and there she saw it was now at 92%. This time, she began to panic a bit on the inside. She knew it wouldn't be much longer before the ray fired, and the citizens of New Mobotropolis would be history.

Crap! She thought with some beads of sweats starting to form on her brow. This is not good, not at all… what do I do?

She then said to Nicole, "Please tell me you're less than a minute from cracking the code."

"I'm afraid not, Sally." The A.I lynx answered. "In my weakened condition, it's going to take at least another ten minutes for me to break through Eggman's encryption."

"We don't have ten minutes!" Sally protested at her. "That ray is going to fire in less than four!"

"I know…" Nicole replied softly. "I'm sorry, but that's the best I can do now."

By this time, Sally realized she was going to have to change strategies. Having Nicole try to stop the ray on her own was no longer an option.

"Can you change the direction of the beam to a place where it wouldn't hurt any civilians?" Sally inquired.

"Negative, Sally." Nicole told her. "In my current state, the only thing I could do is invert the beam, but that would not be a smart move at all I fear…"

"That would blow up the Death Egg to bits," Sally reiterated sharply, "with us in it."

"Indeed." Nicole said. "I would hate to have it to come to that in order to save the city."

Sally ironically felt the same way. To have the vaporizing beam turn on them was a move the squirrel princess wasn't even close to considering yet.

If I was the only casualty, I could live with that… Sally thought to herself. However, not only will I be killed, but so will my friends Amy and Bunnie too. Not to mention Sonic…

The second he crossed her mind, Sally knew she couldn't do it. She cared too much about her true blue to have him die for the city's sake.

There's got to be another option! Sally pondered to herself while placing a hand on her chin to think it over. "But what…?

Again, Sally wouldn't get to think it over too much longer. She soon heard Eggman groaning loudly, where he eventually stood up, rubbing his bleeding chin. He then pointed a finger at her after giving the squirrel princess a fierce glare, shouting loudly with a loud growl, "Enough of this nonsense! I should have known you would put up more of a fight once you entered the room, but I of course underestimated you…"

Before Sally could retort at him, Eggman declared boldly, "Well, no more! Fortunately I had planned ahead just for just for just such a circumstance as this. This time there won't be anymore breathing room for you, Princess!"

"Oh yea, and just what do you think you're going to do to stop me?" Sally shot back.

"Just this, rodent!" Eggman countered. And with that statement, the mad doctor pulled out a remote, pressing the big red button in the middle.

After he did that, Sally asked with arched eyebrows, "And just what is that going to do?"

Eggman quickly flashed a sinister smile at her, replying with an evil chuckle, "You'll find out soon enough, Princess. Let's just say, you're going to be reliving your worst nightmare on the Death Egg all over again!"

"Oh, what, you're going to have another turret gun come out and try to shoot me in here?" Sally inquired with arched eyebrows again. "Not exact a brilliant move on your part if that's what you're planning."

"Oh, no… I'm done trying to blast you with a turret gun." Eggman countered, waving a finger at her from his right hand. "But I assure you, it'll be something almost as terrifying, if you catch my drift!"

Sally however had no time to decipher this riddle. With the charging percentage getting closer and closer to 100% with every second, she decided to ignore his words for now and focus on the main job.

"It doesn't matter what you just did," Sally told him boldly, "Whatever it is, I won't let it get in the way of stopping me from taking out your vaporizing cannon."

Eggman however laughed at her heartily, retorting, "Oh, you have no idea what you're in for now, rodent. Once it arrives in this room, you are finished, you and your precious super computer!"

Arrives in this room? What's he talking about exactly? Sally pondered to herself. Could he actually be talking about the…?

Sally though decided to worry about it later, soon shouting at her A.I best friend while picking up the chair again, "Quick, Nicole, find another way to stop the cannon!"

"What do you suggest I do?" Nicole inquired of her.

"It doesn't matter." Sally reiterated sharply. "Just do something, anything! The city is depending on us!"

Eggman though just sneered at the desperation in her body language, stating with a taunt, "It's too late to save them now, Princess. Soon they'll be gone and then you and your computer will be next when my little surprise arrives!"

"We shall see about that!" Sally shot back, charging towards him with full vigor.

Meanwhile in the main hall of the Death Egg, Sonic, along with Bunnie and Amy continued to fight with everything they had against Eggman's robots to subdue them into submission.

However, due to Silver Sonic III's massive size, accomplishing that goal would prove to be easier said than done. Sonic would even have to alternate between bots to help Amy and Bunnie be able to hold their own ground.

It sadly got to the point where the blue hedgehog realized the only way he was going to be take them down successfully was to use the robots against each other.

And so, he did.

After briefly switching towards the left side of the room to help out Amy, Sonic came up with an idea.

While she was struggling to keep Metal Sonic off of her with the long stick of her Piko Piko hammer during a spin dash attack, Sonic shouted at her, "Amy, smack that metal faker of mine towards Bunnie!"

"Are you nuts?" the pink hedgehog exclaimed, grunting loudly while trying to fend off Metal Sonic. "It'll hurt her!"

"Trust me." Sonic reassured her. "I've got an idea."

"Even if you do, I'm a little busy at the moment!" Amy shouted again. "I can't do much with this bucket of bolts grinding against my Piko Hammer."

Sonic knew she was indeed right, and so, he quickly sprung into action. He then charged up his own spin dash attack and went to work.

With superb accuracy and timing, the blue hedgehog hit Metal Sonic directly in the midsection, knocking it backwards to the ground temporarily stunned.

"Thank, Sonikku..." Amy commented with a smile. "I really…"

Sonic though wouldn't let her finish her sentence, as she grabbed her and dragged over towards the momentarily dazed blue spiky robot.

"Sonic, what do you think you're doing?" Amy demanded with a frown, who ironically, was more annoyed than happy at his actions.

"No time to explain." The blue hedgehog replied firmly. "Quick, smack this metal bot towards the middle of the room with your Piko Hammer, pronto!"

"What for?" Amy inquired with puzzlement.

Just then, she and Sonic heard Bunnie also grunting loudly from across the room. Again, she was mightily struggling to keep the gigantic silver Sonic robot in check.

"Just do it!" Sonic ordered a bit harshly. "Bunnie's going to need our help!"

Wanting to please her hero, the pink hedgehog didn't dare to question him any further. She then did as she was told, smacking the blue spiky robot towards the exact spot Sonic had instructed as hard as she could with her large red and yellow hammer.

Thankfully, Amy's timing couldn't have been better. Metal Sonic at that moment was only moments away from regaining its focus.

However, with it now being stunned again for the time being, Sonic was able to work his magic. The blue hedgehog then placed the thumbs and index fingers of his hands in a rectangular position find the right spot to aim his next spin dash attack.

"What's the holdup, Sonikku?" Amy asked, again puzzled.

Even Snively and Lien-Da looked on bewildered from their current location.

"Just what is that meddling rodent up to?" Snively asked, now furrowing both eyebrows.

"Who cares?" Lien-Da replied, grasping her whips in a fighting pose. "I think it's time we took full advantage of this little delay, if you know what I mean..."

Snively though shook his head, replying, "Not a good idea. With Silver Sonic III still currently at full steam, our chances of being able to take control of it without risking serious injury to ourselves are unfortunately too high."

Lien-Da quickly turned her head to the small lackey, demanding with arched eyebrows, "So what, we're just going to sit here and wait then? Have you lost your mind?"

"Until Silver Sonic III is temporarily subdued on the ground," Snively explained firmly, "that humongous robot will attack us too the second we enter the battle to try and change its programming. I'm almost certain my psychotic uncle programmed it to cut us to pieces on sight."

Lien-Da couldn't argue with that logic, as she then shrugged her shoulders while shaking her heads, muttering disgusted, "Bah. Why did your Uncle have to make such a monstrosity in the first place?"

"Did you really just ask that?" Snively retorted sharply with a frown.

Meanwhile, back in the main room, Sonic finally found the right angle. And thankfully, it couldn't have come up a better time. Bunnie at the moment was barely hanging on, heavily grunting while trying to manhandle it with her metal hand.

Moments later, Sonic jumped into place. He then looked back at Amy and said, "Ok, on three, hit me with Piko Piko Hammer after I charge up."

"You sure this will work?" the pink hedgehog inquired with deep concern.

"Only one way to find out." Sonic replied with a sly grin.

And with that statement, the blue hedgehog began to spin into a ball in place and charge. Amy meanwhile winded her arms back as far as they would go and began to count to three in her head. At the exact moment she got to the number three, she thought, Ok, here goes nothing…

The split second she finished that thought, Amy finally unwound her arms and swung with everything she had in a golf style of swing, making a loud, "PIKO!" sound on contact.

As Sonic had planned it, his strategy worked out to near perfection. He then slammed full force into the blue spiky robot's midsection, sending it flying towards Silver Sonic III.

Bunnie during this time was now completely exhausted inside, even to the point of contemplating of letting go due to the excessive fatigue.

Thankfully, Sonic's plan finally to the aid of the cyborg rabbit, as Metal Sonic crashed heavily into Silver Sonic III's head, heavily stunning in the process.

"What in tarnation?"

Before Bunnie could even turn her head back to see what had just happened, Sonic and Amy then came charging in at full speed, with the blue hedgehog declaring boldly as they ran, "Hang on, Bunnie, help's on the way!"

Once the blue hedgehog was within five feet of the cyborg rabbit, Sonic jumped high into the air, again, spinning into a ball. Then, a split second later, he executed another homing dash attack at Silver Sonic III, this time aiming right between its metal eyes, trying to stun it further.

While this was going on, Amy stopped next to Bunnie, who was still a bit overwhelmed inside, saying to her, "Don't just stand there. We've got to help my Sonikku!"

Bunnie finally cleared her head, replying firmly, "Right, let's do to it, Sugar."

She then glanced at the heavily stunned Metal Sonic robot near their feet, commenting with a sly grin, "I think ole Sugarhog just gave me a keen idea."

Before Amy could ask what she had her up sleeve, the cyborg rabbit used her metal arm to firmly grab the blue spiky robot in her hand, saying after it was securely in her grasp, "Batter up, Amy girl."

And with that clichéd expression, Bunnie tossed Metal Sonic like a baseball, straight up into the air.

Again, Amy bided her approach and waited for the right moment to swing. Like before, she was right on target, as she smacked Metal Sonic directly in the frontal chest area.

Sonic meanwhile was charging up another spin dash after he had landed to try and take out Silver Sonic III's metal legs from underneath it. However, the split second Metal Sonic came flying in again and slammed into its gigantic head a second time, the blue hedgehog quickly stopped to see what the commotion was.

"Don't let us keep from dishing it out, Sugarhog." Bunnie told him firmly. "Keep up the heat on this nasty bot.

"Right…" Sonic immediately got back to work, again resuming charging up to attack.

While he did that, Bunnie decided to clear some space for the three of the, as she again grabbed Metal Sonic with her metal arm. This time though, she flung the blue spiky robot across the room as she could, trying to have it crash into a wall from the left side to put it out of commission.

Sadly, her robotic arm strength just wasn't enough to deliver, as Metal Sonic missed hitting the wall by about three feet in front of it.

Even so, Metal Sonic by this point was sparking inside from all the previous attacks done by the Freedom Fighters. Seeing this, the cyborg rabbit decided to forget about the small Sonic robot and focus on the more threatening one at hand.

Sonic meanwhile during this time finally executed his spin dash attack, aiming for its lower legs. Again, the attack was right on the money, as the blue hedgehog did indeed take out its legs from underneath it. Silver Sonic III immediately was knocked high into the air upon impact, where it soon crashed face first onto the ground with a violent thud.

The split second it hit the ground, Snively finally saw his opportunity to attack, exclaiming with excitement to the red echidna in black leather with a sly grin on his face while raising his right fist in the air, "Yes! That meddling hedgehog finally took it down." He quickly glanced back at Lien-Da, adding, "Now's our chance to strike a lethal blow to both of our enemies!"

"About time…" Lien-Da muttered, also displaying a sly grin on her face, stretching her whip with both hands.

"Quick, distract them while I sneak around from another corridor to attach the override device." The small lackey instructed her.

Lien-Da not surprisingly didn't have any objections, replying while lightly tapping the whip with her hands, "With pleasure… just leave it to me."

While these two put their plan into action, Sonic said to his comrades, "Ok, I think it's time we leveled this sucker, wouldn't you agree?"

Both Freedom Fighter gals nodded their heads in agreement, but Bunnie soon spoke up with deep concern, "I sure hope nothing's bad happened to Sally girl. I can't help but wonder if sending her alone to tackle that nasty scientist all by herself was a good idea after all."

Sonic and Amy both shared the same worry, with the blue hedgehog replying firmly, "Let's take of business at hand at the moment for now. Knowing Sal, she'll most likely give Eggbelly a real run for the money."

"I hope so…" the cyborg rabbit responded softly, still troubled inside.

"Ok, time for some teamwork" Sonic said after a brief pause. He then glanced over at the pink hedgehog and told her, "Amy, you're up first."

Amy to say the least looked on with a deep smile, as she was deeply honored Sonic chose her to attack first, saying with glowing eyes of love while clasping her hands together, "Really? You're letting me get the first shot?"

"Smash its head with your Piko Hammer a couple of times to damage it further," he instructed with a nod. "After that, Bunnie will come in and try to take it out it with her metal arm. Then, if that's still not enough to do the job, I'll come and put it away with a few strong spin dash attacks."

"Sounds good to me, Sugarhog." Bunnie replied, flashing a thumbs up from her right hand.

"Sal's counting on us, guys." The blue hedgehog reiterated now looking at them intently. "We can't let her down."

Again, both Freedom Fighter gals nodded their heads, as the three of them prepared their well choreographed attacks to the still momentarily stunned Silver Sonic robot.

Meanwhile, Lien-Da was now less than fifteen feet behind them and closing, softly tiptoeing from behind, still looking on with that vile smile on her face.

During this time, Amy finally walked up from behind and wound up arms to prepare to attack. As she did so, Snively was finally in position, now biding his time for Lien-Da to get their attention.

Yes, that's it, Lien-Da… Snively thought grinning. Keep going… you're almost there.

Unfortunately for both sides, Silver Sonic III had other plans. Without warning, it abruptly spun into a ball in retaliation while standing in place, revealing its deadly blades again, causing not only Amy to freak out after her hammer was smacked out of her grasp from the spinning blades, but Sonic, Bunnie did too.

Even Lien-Da and Snively looked on in a panic, with the small dictator thinking thought to himself with beads of sweat on his face; you've got to be kidding me! I was so close!

Not surprisingly, Sonic and Bunnie finally saw Lien-Da from behind, instantly figuring out what she was trying to do. Unfortunately though, before either of them could do anything about it, Amy's screams quickly got their attention.

Amy during this time picked up her hammer, only to have the Silver Sonic III attempt to cut her to pieces on the spot.

Sonic though came running into action, shouting, "Oh no you don't, bot!"

Bunnie too came to her aid, preparing to use her metal arm again to tame the silver monstrosity.

This time unfortunately, neither one of them would not be able to help out. The split second Sonic tried another spin dash attack to stun it again; Silver Sonic III instead beat him to the punch, using its own spin dash to smack him backwards.

If that wasn't bad enough, Bunnie too felt the effects of Silver Sonic III's attack, as the blue hedgehog crashed into her head on, taking both of them to the ground in a violent heap, seriously dazed.

Thankfully, Sonic wasn't cut at all by any of its metal blades when knocked backwards, but it still packed a wallop nevertheless, especially after he collided with the cyborg rabbit.

As for Lien-Da, she had by this time ran for it, as she wasn't about to risk her neck against this metal monster.

Amy meanwhile looked on in shock, then deep anger, shouting with rage while smacking Silver Sonic III with her Piko Hammer fervently, "You metal creep! Nobody hurts my Sonikku and gets away with it!"

That move unfortunately would be completely futile on the pink hedgehog's part. Not only did the hammer attack not do any damage to its metal shell, but it even cause the silver monstrosity to turn on her, where it quickly spun into a ball to attack.

Amy surprisingly nonetheless held her ground, though not without an expression of overwhelming panic on her face. She then tried to use the top end of her Piko Hammer as a buffer, hoping to at least stall for it now.

That however would not happen. Instead, Silver Sonic III again knocked the large red and yellow hammer out of her hands, even to the point of smacking her in the face.

Within moments, the pink hedgehog hit the ground again, now with a deep bruise on her right cheek from the hammer blow.

As for Sonic and Bunnie, they both finally stood up and cleared their dazed vision, but only to see Silver Sonic III within seconds of cutting Amy to pieces.

"AMY!" the blue hedgehog shouted, extending his hand in a deep fright.

To make things worse, neither of them would be able to get there in time to help, and they both knew this.

Even Amy, who was now sadly cornered with a metal wall behind her, realized any hope for her was all but gone. She then closed her eyes and prepared for her gruesome demise that vastly approached her.

Ironically though, when Silver Sonic III got within two feet of having its metal blades slice up the pink hedgehog; it then abruptly stopped in midair, now hovering in front of her instead.

This course of action not only puzzled Amy, but Sonic and Bunnie too. Even Snively and Lien-Da looked on bewildered.

"What the…? Why did it stop and not finish her off?" Snively pondered to himself softly, again furrowing his eyebrows.

Silver Sonic III meanwhile during this time let out several monotoned computer beeps, dumbfounding everyone in the room even further. Then, in one bizarre swoop, it took off and blasted out of the main hall.

"What in tarnation? That nasty bot could have easily made chop suey out of Amy gal." Bunnie exclaimed. "But it didn't... What in the world would cause it to do that?"

Sonic meanwhile glared angrily at the direction, replying, "I don't know, but I'm almost certain it wasn't because old Eggbelly had a change of heart."

Bunnie too got the hint of what Sonic was implying, saying with a gasp of horror, "You don't think that thing left to attack Sally girl, do you?"

"I can't think of any other reason for it to just leave so abruptly." The blue hedgehog reiterated, crossing his arms together.

Amy during this time finally came over to them, demanding angrily, now with her hammer in hand, "Hey, aren't either of you going to ask me if I'm ok? That robot almost cut me to pieces."

"Oh, sorry about that, Amy…" Sonic answered sheepishly, shrugging his shoulders at her with an awkward grin. "I got a little sidetracked is all… I am relieved you didn't get hurt by that mondo silver bot by the way."

Amy though still frowned at him, as the blue hedgehog turned to the cyborg rabbit, saying firmly to her, "Bunnie, go after that bot pronto! I'm almost certain Eggbelly's the reason it left the room so it will kill Sal."

Bunnie quickly nodded her head, replying, "Will do, Sugarhog."

And with that statement, the cyborg rabbit ignited the rocket boosters from the bottom of her metal legs, blasting off towards the same corridor as Silver Sonic III did.

After she left, Amy asked her true blue, now concerned herself, "You really think Sally's in danger now, Sonikku?"

"It can't be anything else." Sonic answered with a fierce glare. "She's the only one now standing in the way of Eggman firing that cannon of his."

As Amy pondered this over, Sonic added after a brief pause, "Anyway, we'll worry about that later. Right now, let's take out Eggbelly's cronies together, shall we?"

Amy too nodded her head in agreement, replying, firmly grasping her Piko hammer in her arms, "Sounds good to me."

Sonic then looked around the room, pondering to himself, "Now, where did Miss Whipstress go?"

Unfortunately for the blue hedgehog, he wouldn't get a chance to find out, as he was instantly blindsided from behind within seconds.

"Sonic!" Amy exclaimed.

The pink hedgehog quickly turned around, and there she saw who had done it, none other than Metal Sonic… who was not only functioning again, but now under the control of Snively as well.

"You?"

"Well, well… looks like my plan to take control of a robot didn't backfire completely after all…" the small lackey commented, sneering at Amy.

Sonic meanwhile finally stood up and looked in his direction, as he continued, now frowning, "I wanted to gain control of Silver Sonic III, but I guess my uncle had other plans." He then said after shrugging his shoulders, "No matter… Metal Sonic will do for now."

"So, trying to dethrone old Eggbelly again, eh Snobley?" Sonic demanded, looking at him in a fighting pose. "Why am I not surprised?"

"As if you didn't expect this…" Snively retorted with a smug look on his face. "But enough talk. It's time I took out the trash!"

"Yea, and that trash is going to be you, Snobley." The blue hedgehog countered, pointing a finger at him from his right hand.

"You can bank on that." Amy added with a firm glare on her face.

She then charged in to attack Metal Sonic with her Piko Hammer. However, another one of Eggman's cronies quickly had other ideas.

Out of nowhere, Amy found herself hog tied from the legs down from behind, abruptly knocking her to the ground face first.

"Amy!" Sonic quickly turned around, and there he saw Lien-Da, slowly dragging the pink hedgehog towards her.

Snively now chortled loudly at the blue blur, retorting, "I think you've got more important things to worry about at the moment than your precious fan girl."

The split second he said that, Metal Sonic instantly went to attack, spinning into a metal ball. Not being one to back down, Sonic quickly responded to this also, as he too spun into a ball to attack.

While this was going on, Lien-Da finally dragged Amy close enough to where she could turn around and see the black jump-suited red echidna grinning evilly at her.

"Let go of me, you creep!" Amy demanded, struggling to get her legs free

Lien-Da however just laughed at her words, commenting as she dragged her further, "My, my, my, such arrogance from a whiny brat like yourself… I don't know whether to laugh at your folly or shake my head at your impotence."

"I'll show you who's impotent when I get out of this whip!" Amy shot back.

"Oh, is that a fact?" Lien-Da countered. "You really think you're hot stuff?"

Without warning, the female red then abruptly released her from her whip with an abrupt flick of her wrist, adding with a taunting gesture from her right hand after the pink hedgehog stood up, "Then bring it, kid. Show me you're a worthy Freedom Fighter opponent to battle."

Amy now clutched her Piko Hammer tightly in both hands, responding with a fierce hiss, "I'll make you regret the day you called me a kid!"

In spite of the pink hedgehog's words, Lien-Da kept her composure, saying after smacking the whip on the ground near Amy's feet in order to make her flinch, "Well, make your move then, brat. We'll see who's all talk soon enough…"

Amy not surprisingly did flinch, but didn't lose her resolve, as she then charged aggressively towards the female red echidna, growling loudly at her as she ran while holding her Piko Hammer up high.

Meanwhile, Bunnie was now in hot pursuit, trying to effortlessly to hunt down Silver Sonic III and follow after it.

Unfortunately though, there was no sign of the silver monstrosity anywhere. Even when the cyborg rabbit flew around from corridor to corridor on the current floor at top speed, her search was completely in vain.

Within a thirty seconds, Bunnie soon groaned in frustration, muttering to herself, "This is getting me nowhere! I ain't seen hide nor hair of that nasty bot."

At that moment, it hit her, thinking, that silver robot must've already gone down to the next floor.

Not wanting to waste anymore precious seconds, the cyborg rabbit quickly ran towards the nearest elevator of the Death Egg on the current floor. She then pressed a button on the wall nearby after finding it, where a shaft soon came up.

Instantly, Bunnie boarded the elevator shaft, pressing the button inside it towards the next floor below. Within moments, it descended towards the next room.

On the way down, the cyborg rabbit readied her laser cannon, preparing for any of Eggman's robots that might ambush her when the doors open. Even though she was already feeling some fatigue from using it before, Bunnie resolved within herself to save her best friend Sally at any cost, even if that price meant her own life if it came down to it.

Ten seconds later, the elevator shaft finally came to a stop, where the doors quickly opened. The split second they did, Bunnie had her laser cannon aimed at the middle of the doors. Ironically, there weren't any robots in her path, trying to stop her. This is in turn deeply puzzled the cyborg rabbit.

Nevertheless, Bunnie decided to worry about it later, as she then blasted out of the shaft with her rocket boosters from her metal feet, now flying around the corridors at top speed again, trying to find any clues to Silver Sonic III's current whereabouts.

Again, she saw no sign of it, which only frustrated her even further.

"That nasty old Eggman must really be trying to make it hard for me to hunt down his big, bad robot." Bunnie commented to herself, now with arched eyebrows.

In spite of this setback, Bunnie knew she had to keep trying. She wasn't about to give up because the mad doctor had turned up the heat on her and her friends. And so, she did, again flying around, looking for anything that would help her find Silver Sonic III.

Strangely ten seconds later, she finally found her answer. She then glanced to her right while flying around, where she happened to notice some of the monitors from above that had been blank before, but we're now lit up, showing where Silver Sonic was going. This in turn made her stop in her tracks, completely dumbfounded.

"What in tarnation? Now why is Eggman all of a sudden showing me where it's headed?" Bunnie pondered to herself, placing a hand under her chin to think. "This ain't like him at all."

Despite Eggman's bizarre moves leaving her stumped, Bunnie soon found out the next elevator Silver Sonic III had taken. The split second she did, the cyborg rabbit quickly flew towards it, determined to get to the next floor.

This time however, unlike the last elevator shaft, it would not respond at all. After pressing the button a dozen times in frustration, Bunnie figured out by now it was locked.

She then growled in frustration, muttering to herself in deep anger, "That blasted mad man! No wonder he revealed that bot's location so blatantly. He was just toying with me to get me to bite!"

Within seconds, she also figured out why the previous shaft had worked, but not this one, adding after a long pause, "He was trying to separate me from my friends. He knew I could do more damage with them than separate."

Deep down, Bunnie didn't have a clue on how Eggman had figured out she was coming after him and the Silver Sonic III, but decided to worry about that later. She then said with fierce determination in her eyes, "Well, it don't matter if I can't access the elevator manually with a push of a button or not. If it won't let me in, then I'll force it open!"

And with that statement, the cyborg rabbit did just that, as she now used her metal arm to try and pull the metal doors open with brute strength. She didn't how long it would take, but Bunnie refused to quit until there was nothing left in her.

Meanwhile, in the floor below a minute earlier, the conflict between Sally and Eggman continued, sort of…

Sally during this time tried to dent in Eggman's skull with his computer chair. However, to her big surprise, the mad doctor easily evaded every swing she through at him with ease. What made this even more puzzling was the fact Eggman didn't even bother to counter.

This move not surprisingly put the squirrel Princess on edge, wondering what he was up to.

After seven misses, Eggman said to her with a smirk, "I don't know why you're bothering to try and hit me with that chair, Princess. I'm not going to attack you now."

"Oh, don't play dumb with me!" Sally shot back, taking another swing at him with his computer chair. "You're up to something and I'm going to put an end to your shenanigans before they bite me in the tail."

"Fine, don't believe me…" Eggman retorted smugly, evading the same swing. "But I'm not lying to you here."

Eggman then moved back and leaned onto the wall from behind, saying nonchalantly while crossing his arms together, "See? I'm just going to stand right here and let you try to stop my Death Egg cannon."

Sally immediately arched her eyebrows, replying to him, holding the chair up high again, "Oh, sure you are… the second I turn my back, you're going to ambush me from behind!"

Again, Eggman blew it off, saying now placing his hands behind his head in a stretching pose, "Nope, I couldn't be more serious here. So, do what you gotta do… I'll just stand here and watch."

Eggman is definitely up to something, Sally thought to herself. He wouldn't just do this without a good reason.

Nevertheless, seeing the percentage counter at 95%, Sally decided to take him up on his word for the moment, eventually asking Nicole, "Any luck trying to stop the cannon with alternative methods?"

"Negative, Sally." Nicole replied. "No matter what program I've tried to use, I cannot breach the encryption of the Death Egg's computer network."

Sally now let out a frustrating groan, where she quickly glanced at Eggman, who was indeed standing there, whistling to himself.

"You sure are a confident one now." Sally muttered, glaring at him intently. "I'm surprised you're not worried in the least about Nicole maybe getting through."

"That's because I know she can't get through it." Eggman shot back, looking at the squirrel princess with complete arrogance. "I unfortunately didn't put enough encryption on the roboticizing ray program, but I made sure I did this time for the Death Egg cannon."

As Sally continued to glare at him, Eggman added to add more salt in her wound, "I learn from my mistakes quickly. Too bad you didn't, Princess. We wouldn't be having this discussion if you weren't such a softie."

At that moment, Sally was very tempted to try and hit him with the chair again to shut his taunts up, but decided to focus on the bigger matter at hand for now. She then asked her best A.I friend after seeing the charging number hit 97%, "Nicole, are you telling me there's absolutely no way to break through the encryption program?"

Nicole soon answered after a brief pause, "Well, there is one very risky method left I could try, but I'm not sure it'll work, or if it's even safe to attempt."

"Go for it, Nicole." Sally pleaded with her in sheer desperation. "For the sake of our friends and family, you have to at least try before it's too late!"

Just then, Sally heard a rumbling from a distance, putting her again on edge. Within seconds, a huge robot came flying through the metal door after it opened, and there she saw what Eggman was talking about from before.

As she looked at it in a deep panic, Eggman said in complete glee, still in the same pose as before, "I hate to break it to you, rodent, but it's already too late, for you anyway…

What Sally saw was none other than the Silver Sonic III, now standing in front of Eggman.

Eggman then said to his massive robot in a devious tone, "Sic her."

And with that command, the large silver Sonic robot spun into a ball to attack Sally.

Back upstairs, Bunnie finally wrenched the elevator doors open during this time, though having to use a lot of robotic arm strength in order to do so. After that was done, the cyborg rabbit flew towards the room below, where she again saw another set of doors in her path, locked tight.

Bunnie then heard Sally scream in absolute terror, even from that far away, making her gasp in horror, saying while placing her non metal hand in front of her face, "Oh no, Sally's girl in real trouble. I gotta help her!"

The split second she finished that sentence, Bunnie decided she had to get through the metal doors and quickly. Realizing it would take too long to pry them open, she did the next thing… Bunnie would ram them with her robotic arm and legs to try and break them down.

C'mon, Bunnie… the cyborg rabbit told herself in her mind while hovering near the back of the elevator chamber wall, Sally's counting on you. You can't let her down!

Sally would indeed have her hands full now. With nothing to protect her but the computer chair, the squirrel Princess did indeed try to use the chair in order to shield herself from its attacks.

Sadly, the chair wouldn't even provide three seconds of cushion. Silver Sonic III cut the metal chair to pieces almost immediately on contact, putting Sally in an even deeper panic than before.

Eggman meanwhile during this time ordered his robot after the chair was destroyed, "Cut her to pieces too, my marvelous creation! Give this rodent no place to hide!"

Silver Sonic III did indeed do just that, as he hunted after Sally with absolute fury, giving her no breathing room whatsoever. Nevertheless, the squirrel Princess fought valiantly in response to this, using whatever evasion tactic she could think of to keep her fur and tail in one piece.

Ironically, to compound the situation, even for Eggman, Silver Sonic III was almost too good at its job of trying to hunt her down. After Sally evaded a spin attack aimed at her from the back of the room, Silver Sonic III quickly changed course, now heading for Sally again, who was now standing on the table near the computer that would activate the ray.

Eggman then shouted at his machine, now almost in a panic himself, "Stay away from my computer, you metal moron! I can't have your blades destroying my equipment that would prevent me from firing the Death Egg cannon!"

Hearing this relieved Sally a bit inside, as she stayed on the table to keep herself intact. She then shouted at Nicole after seeing the percentage hit 98%, "Nicole, do what you gotta do! We can't let Eggman kill the citizens!"

Even now, Nicole still struggled within herself to try this last bit effort, especially since it could prove to be fatal to her if done incorrectly. Nevertheless, she knew Sally had a point. So, she replied softly, "Very well, I'll give it my best efforts, Sally."

What Nicole was planning to do, was none other than attempt to intercept the charging process and have it transfer its power from the cannon to hers.

On one hand, it could be a brilliant strategy if timed well, fully recharging her, thus giving the A.I lynx a much greater chance at getting past the encryption process and stopping the cannon. On the other hand though, there was a solid chance her portable power supply could be overloaded due to receiving too much power, risking it not only blowing up, but even risking her own A.I life as well.

Even so, Nicole knew too many lives were at stake to worry about the risks now. She then buckled down and said to herself within her programming, "I must stop Eggman's cannon, no matter what the cost…"

Back on the main floor, Sonic and Amy's solo battles would not be a cake in the walk, in spite of the fact they were each only facing one opponent.

Even though Snively was forced to work with Metal Sonic, that would not deter his determination to wipe out his opponent in the least. The small lackey even wore a special device on his head to help him out.

Sonic not surprisingly couldn't help but poke fun at the goofy looking contraption, asking with a jab, asking after bouncing off of Metal Sonic, "Hey, what's with the ugly hat, Snobley? Need something to cover your bald hair?"

"Yuk it up all you want, rodent," Snively shot back, now strapping it on tightly around his chin. "But this device is really going to put you to the test!"

"Oh yea?" Sonic countered, getting into a fighting position again. "Prove it."

"Watch and learn, hedgehog!" Snively retorted, now grinning at him, pointing a finger in his face "I'll soon wipe that disgusting smirk off of your face."

Snively's words not surprisingly lit a fire into the blue hedgehog, as he again charged up a spin dash while at a standstill.

As for Amy, she found out soon enough herself that Lien-Da wasn't one of the head Dark Legion members for nothing. The pink hedgehog again and again took violent swings of her Piko Hammer at the red female echidna, trying as hard as she could to level her to the floor.

Unfortunately, in spite of her best efforts, Lien-Da easily evaded her ongoing onslaught of hammer swings, moving her head from side to side, even back flipping out of harm's way when one swing got too close for comfort.

After a half dozen misses, Amy said with a growl, "Stop jumping around already and fight me!"

Lien-Da though kept her cool, retorting icily while jumping over a hammer smash attack of Amy's, "But if I did that, I wouldn't get the pleasure of seeing you all bent out of shape."

"You'll be the one who's bent out of shape if you don't stop running your mouth!" Amy shot back.

Amy then tried even harder, putting every effort of muscle into every hammer to smack Lien-Da. But again, the female red echidna was too disciplined and composed for that to happen.

Finally, within thirty seconds after she heard Amy began to gasp for air, Lien-Da made her move, saying while stretching her whip like a belt in a mocking tone of voice, "Getting tired already, brat? I thought you'd have more stamina than this."

"Shut up!" Amy roared, still taking a couple of breaths, "I have yet begun to fight!"

Amy unwisely charged after her again, but this time she would pay for it dearly. The split second she charged towards Lien-Da again, the red female echidna finally went on the offensive. She then winded her hand back and waited patiently for Amy's next hammer swing.

The split second she saw Amy attempting another devastating hammer blow, Lien-Da launched her whip towards the pink hedgehog, where she snuggly wrapped it around the large red and yellow hammer.

Amy meanwhile went to swing again, but this time she couldn't, as the whip had completely tangled it up. Lien-Da then said when she saw her foe's shocked reaction to this, "Fun and games are over, pinky. Now comes the pain."

And with that statement, Lien-Da tugged even harder on her whip, now wrenching it completely out of her hands.

Before Amy could react to this, the female red echidna quickly unleashed her next move, where she then strongly flung her hammer still tangled in the whip directly at her face.

Amy though ducked underneath it, saying with a witty retort, "Ha, ya missed me!"

Again, Lien-Da didn't bat an eye at her jab, replying after a short pause, "Boomerang effect, in 3, 2, 1…"

Amy unfortunately didn't get the gist of this saying until it was too late, where she was then smacked hard in the back of the head with her own Piko Hammer after Lien-Da yanked hard on it, hitting the floor with a serious thud.

As for Lien-Da, she was too disciplined to make the same mistake, as she instead caught the stick end of the hammer with her free hand.

Amy meanwhile clutched the back of her head with her right head, groaning loudly in pain. Lien-Da then said to rub it in her face, "A pity really… without this so called big hammer of yours, you're completely useless in battle."

In spite of this taunt, the pink hedgehog shot back, glaring at her opponent while standing on one leg, "I am not useless in battle, you legionized witch! I am a top notch Freedom Fighter regardless!"

"Very well then…" Lien-Da retorted, holding her whip up high, preparing to strike again, "We'll see just how tough you really are!"

The split second she finished that statement, the red female echidna flung her whip at Amy with lightning styled speed, striking her directly on the opposite cheek of where she received her bruise from getting hit in the face with the Piko Hammer.

This time though, the whip left a small cut on her left cheek, even making her cry out in pain upon infliction.

"Aw, what's the matter, brat?" Lien-Da mocked, holding her whip up high again, "Can't handle a little pain?"

Again, Lien-Da flung her whip at the pink hedgehog, this directly on her back, inflicting even more pain on her. Like before, Amy again cried out in pain, even almost losing her balance due to the abrupt blow.

Lien-Da still wouldn't let up, as she flung her whip at Amy a third time within moments, this time directly at the back of her right leg, the one she was currently standing on, leaving a large red mark on it.

This time, Amy hit the floor, now crying out in even more pain while clutching her freshly wounded leg tightly. Tears were even beginning to form in her eyes, as each whip stroke really stung hard.

"You're completely wasting my time, you pathetic excuse for a Freedom Fighter." Lien-Da told her bluntly with a frown. "You don't even deserve to fight with elites like Sonic. You're just a pathetic baby."

That statement finally caused Amy to fully snap inside. She would not let the Dark Legionaire embarrass her any longer. She then abruptly stood up and declared boldly with a fierce his, pointing a finger in her face "You can mock my maturity and question my fighting skills, but don't you EVER say I don't deserve to fight along side my beloved Sonikku!"

Amy quickly added with full rage in her eyes, "Nobody is going to take that right away from me! NOBODY!"

Surprisingly, Lien-Da couldn't help but be a little startled by Amy's sudden outburst of anger. Nevertheless, she soon said in response with a smirk, "If you really mean business here, then let's see you beat me without your precious mallet."

Lien-Da then tossed her hammer clear across the room with one strong heave, putting a look of deep concern on her face. Lien-Da unfortunately saw that look on her face, telling Amy with an icy expression on her face, "Still feeling bold now, pinkie?"

Amy deep down was feeling very uneasy inside. She knew without her hammer, she wasn't even a tenth the fighter she was known with it.

Nevertheless, Amy would not back down. Lien-Da had deeply insulted something she valued dearly in her life. And for that cutting remark, the pink hedgehog swore to make her pay big time.

It's not looking good, Amy thought to herself, but there's too much at stake now. I will defeat her for the honor of my rank as a Freedom Fighter, as well as my rights to fight alongside my beloved Sonikku…

"Well, you can attack me any time now," Lien-Da mocked, "or run home and cry, either one is fine with me."

Amy again took her stinging words to heart, thinking to herself again, it's time I put Julie-Su's training to the ultimate test. If anyone fights like her, it would definitely be Lien-Da.

And with those words, the pink hedgehog charged towards her, more determined than ever to take down her opponent.

Meanwhile, Sonic soon discovered himself that Snively's threatening words to him would hold a lot more water than previously thought. Metal Sonic, in spite of not being a third of Silver Sonic III sill fought valiantly, even a bit intelligently too. No matter what move the blue hedgehog tried to use to bring his blue spiky imposter down, it held up, almost matching him blow for blow.

This is getting ridiculous, Sonic thought to himself angrily, preparing to attempt another spin dash at it. How is this thing being able to negate my every move?

Little did Sonic realize, Snively's head gear was playing a much bigger role in this than he ever thought possible. After another three failed attacks, Sonic's patience finally ran out, thinking to himself, that does it! No more playing around, it's time I got serious!

The blue hedgehog then charged towards the blue spiky robot preparing to hit him with a well timed homing spin dash attack from above once he jumped in the air. Sadly, to his shock, Metal Sonic was able to completely counter it. The split second he jumped into the air, the blue spiky robot hit him with a well timed spin dash attack to his chest, knocking him to the ground with a thud.

"What the…? How did that thing just…?"

Snively now flashed a full grin at his opponent, asking him icily with a taunt, "What's the matter, blue boy? I thought you were supposed to be better than your robotic double."

Sonic instantly gritted his teeth at him, retorting angrily, "I'll show you what I can do soon enough, needle nose!"

The blue hedgehog then charged towards Metal Sonic as it came towards him and attempted to take it down with another spin dash. But again, Metal Sonic negated his spin dash attack, as it too spun into a ball, causing both of them to bounce off of each other once more.

Nevertheless, Sonic refused to let this setback get to him. He then thought to himself, let's see that thing try and mimic me after I start running around it in circles!

Sonic sadly would get his wish. Within two seconds of him attempting to run around Metal Sonic to heavily confuse it, the blue spiky robot did the exact same thing, where it now ran around him, running even faster than what he was capable of.

In a true sense of irony, Sonic would now be the one ending up heavily confused. His eyes soon spun around again and again, making him very dizzy inside.

Seeing a golden opportunity, Snively now had Metal Sonic spin-dash the blue hedgehog with speed and power, hitting him from multiple angles. Since the blue hedgehog's eyes were still spinning at the moment, he had no time to react. Instead, he quickly felt the blows one after the other in rapid succession.

Within five seconds, Sonic was then slammed the ground with a violent thud after Metal Sonic hit him with a spin dash attack from above on his back. By now, he was very beat up inside, even to the point the bump on his head was throbbing in pain.

Snively meanwhile brought back Metal Sonic on the right side of where he was standing, commenting gleefully to boast, "Well, well, well… looks like my little device worked better than I thought it would. And to think it did this much to you with just a simple Metal Sonic robot. Imagine what I could have done to your blue hide with Silver Sonic III."

Sonic during this time finally stood up, glaring at him angrily, as Snively added with a sneer, "I guess my little ugly hat isn't so useless after all, eh, blue boy?"

In spite of his stinging words, Sonic refused to bite on his comments, as the blue hedgehog said boldly in response while standing up, "I don't know how you made this metal faker of mine fight so smart like, but I'm putting a stop to it here and now!"

Snively then retorted to further mock him, "I doubt that, rodent, especially since now we're now on the same wavelength."

Sonic now gasped in disbelief, saying, "You don't mean to tell me that…"

"No more hints, Sonic." Snively remarked with a frown. "Now put up your quills and fight!"

Sonic then thought to himself, getting himself into fighting position with arched eyebrows, something tells me that goofy gear of Snobley's is the main culprit behind Metal Sonic fighting me so effortlessly now. Well, if that is the case, then I'll just trash it with a quick spin dash attack. Old needlenose won't be able to brag much after that.

A split second later, Metal Sonic now came charging in, making the blue hedgehog prepare to counter it, thinking to himself, Ok, here goes nothing…

Meanwhile downstairs, Sally now found herself in a big pickle. In spite of the fact the computer table was a deterrent to Silver Sonic III due being ordered by the mad doctor to go nowhere near it, that didn't stop Eggman from playing the X-factor in putting an end to that.

With Silver Sonic III blocking the right side of the room, Eggman soon crowded the left and told the squirrel Princess, "You're only delaying the inevitable, Princess. You can't protect your precious super computer and yourself at the exact same time!"

Sally knew deep down he was right, but wasn't about to concede to that point, not yet anyway.

Eggman then told her, "Your efforts may have been valiant, but it will soon be in vain." As he pointed to the counter, he added, "It's now less than forty five seconds from being fully charged. There's no way it can be stopped in time now."

Little did Eggman realize, Nicole wasn't about to give up on trying to stop him just yet.

The A.I lynx then put her risky plan into action. Using a calculated formula in her CPU, Nicole realized if she absorbed the power charge for about three seconds, it would more than likely result in her power supply being restored to near peak performance. However, the chances of it overloading her were still a strong possibility.

Nevertheless, Nicole knew it was now or never. She now quickly tapped her power supply into the main charge from the cannon, saying to herself, "Here goes nothing…"

While this was going on, Sally quickly shielded Nicole's portable computer shell with her body to protect her. Eggman figured she would do this, where he prepared his next move. He then attempted to grab the squirrel princess by the soles of her boots in order to heave her towards his huge Silver Sonic robot.

Sally however refused to budge, even slipping her feet out of her blue boots when Eggman started to get some leverage over her balance over the table.

Even so, Eggman quickly grabbed her now bare paws by the ankles after tossing her boots aside, saying with an angry grunt, "Foolish rodent, you really think that's going to be enough to slow me down?"

"No, but this will!" Sally retorted, holding her right arm up high.

In that moment, she then rammed her right elbow on the top of his head, making him quickly recoil. The mad doctor now held his aching head in pain, soon shouting at her in response, "OW! Why you little…!"

By this point, Eggman was done playing it safe. He then charged towards her all kamikaze like, bruised head and all, jumping onto the table to shove her off, as well smash Nicole with his boots.

Despite now being barefoot, Sally firmly held her ground, as she then met his charge head on, soon getting into a grappling match with him with both hands.

Eggman then tried to overpower the squirrel princess again, attempting to use his lower body strength to his advantage in order to push her off the table. Sally though refused to budge, using every bit of strength she had, even adrenaline if necessary to keep herself standing afoot.

Nicole meanwhile finally finished her transfer charge process. As an added safety precaution, the A.I lynx had trimmed her time from three seconds to 2.75. That move ironically would turn out to be a brilliant one, as it left her nearly fully charged in the process, at precisely 97%.

Now near full power, Nicole used her A.I prowess to the fullest, working as fast as she could to crack the encryption, in spite of the fact it was now at 99%, with less than twenty-five seconds from completion.

As for Sally and Eggman, they continued to grapple hard, but it continued to be a stalemate. Within seconds, the mad doctor decided to take a cheap shot to get her off balance, as he now raised his right foot to stomp on her bare feet.

Sally though saw him attempting this and quickly reacted, using slamming her right knee into his gut before he could stomp, causing Eggman to recoil backwards, holding his chest with both hands.

Sally then unloaded on him, jumping as high into the air as she could, where she then punched as hard as could between the eyes. Again, Eggman staggered back from the attack, but still wouldn't go down, as he now tried to keep his balance near the edge of the table.

Completely fed up inside, Sally now went for the jugular, as she kicked as hard as she could in the groin with her right paw. This time, Eggman not only went down, he went down hard, crashing to the floor in a heap of pain.

Just then, the cannon reached 100%, making the squirrel Princess gasped in horror while looking at it, asking Nicole, "Please tell me it's not too late to shut the cannon down"

"I cannot shut the cannon down, but I can permanently lock it out with a little more time." Nicole replied boldly.

At that moment, even Sally noticed the change in her friend's tone of voice, asking dumbfounded, "Nicole, what's happened to you? How come you sound so much vibrant now?"

"I don't have time to explain." Nicole told her, "but I will say I attempted an alternate method to help me stop the cannon. Sufficive to say, it worked."

Sally now smiled from ear to ear. Hearing this from her A.I best friend gave her renewed confidence.

Nevertheless, the squirrel princess quickly turned her head, and there she saw Eggman back on his feet, again coming after her, more enraged than ever.

As he growled loudly at her while coming closer, Nicole said briefly, "I'll need at least thirty seconds. Can you hold Eggman off in the meantime?"

"I'll do my best." Sally replied, now glaring firmly at the mad doctor. "For the sake of Mobius and its citizens, I will not go down without a fight."

Eggman meanwhile closed in a hurry. This time however, he wasn't going after Sally, but after Nicole, especially after her brief message just moments ago.

Within seconds, Eggman then attempted to shove the squirrel aside with both arms and smash Nicole's portable computer with his right fist soon after.

Sally however, was ready for Phase 1 of his plan, as she quickly jumped into the air to evade his arms. Then, when she saw him going after Nicole, she quickly landed, positioning her feet to land on his hands.

Eggman again recoiled from the attack, but wouldn't quit. He now grabbed Sally by the vest and shoved her against the wall from behind. This time, the squirrel Princess wasn't ready for this attack and couldn't counter it. Sally soon hit the ground in a heap, as she then heard Eggman order his Silver Sonic III, who was still waiting for his next command, "Cut her to pieces, now!"

Sally however played her cards well, as she quickly lunged at Eggman in response, now clutching his backside as tightly as possible to put him in a bind.

Eggman quickly tried to knock her off of him, but she wouldn't budge. To make matters worse, Silver Sonic III was now charging towards them, with his razor sharp blades sticking out Even when Eggman tried to kneel down with his back turned to the machine in order to have it cut Sally up that way, the squirrel Princess quickly reacted, as she dug her bare paws into his jacket pockets, using it as leverage to leap over him and onto the table again.

Eggman then turned around and saw the Silver Sonic III was within three feet of cutting him up. He quickly put a hand up, shouting at it, "Stop, you hunk of junk!"

Fortunately for him, it did, as Silver Sonic III quickly came to a stop, now at a standstill.

However, his troubles were far from over. Just then, he heard Nicole announce unwisely, "I have cracked the encryption of the program, Sally. Now attempting to permanently lock out Death Egg Cannon."

"NO!" Eggman roared in response.

In that moment, the mad doctor was determined to rip out her connecting wires and shut her down for good. Sally though attempted to stop him again, placing her body in front of him to shield her.

Eggman however would not let that slow him down. He then used his right hand to shove her against the far right corner of the computer table. Sally sadly was not ready for this move, where she soon hit that wall with a thud, momentarily stunning her.

As for Nicole, she was within five seconds of completing her task, but Eggman finally put a stop to it, as he abruptly ripped out the connecting USB wires from his computer.

Sally meanwhile finally shook her head to clear her vision, and there she saw Eggman now holding Nicole in his grasp. She then gasped in horror, as Eggman added, "Say goodbye to your precious super computer, rodent!"

Sally quickly shouted out, extending her right hand in the process, "No, stop!"

Eggman though wouldn't be deterred in the least, as he then heaved Nicole's portable to the right wall of the computer room as hard as he can, attempting to smash her against it.

Sally again let out a shout, yelling, "NO!"

In that moment, she quickly threw herself in front of the wall, trying desperately to take the brunt of the impact for her best A.I friend. Sadly, her efforts were in vain. The best she could do was that both of her hands were able to absorb the toss, hitting both of them, but it still wasn't enough to protect Nicole from hitting the wall. Within moments, the portable computer shell of Nicole hit the wall hard, where it soon crashed to the floor in a heap."

"No, Nicole!" Sally by this time had hit the ground herself, where she nonetheless ran to her A.I friend, barefoot and all.

Eggman meanwhile let out a chuckle, saying in a triumphant manner, "Looks like I win, Princess. Your so called super computer wasn't fast enough to stop me."

Sally during this time, checked on the condition of Nicole, asking of her, "Are you ok? Please tell me you're still functioning."

Thankfully, Nicole's A.I program was still functioning, but was now seriously malfunctioning at the same time, replying in a warped tone of voice, "Assessing damage control."

Sally by this time began to feel a deep panic inside of her. Her best efforts sadly apparently looked as they had been for nothing.

Eggman meanwhile said to savor the moment, "You know, I'm very tempted to have Silver Sonic III cut up you now, but then you wouldn't the privilege of seeing me press the button."

As Sally gasped in horror, the mad doctor added with a vile grin on his face, "And besides what fun would there be in destroying New Mobotropolis without seeing a look of utter despair from the very Princess who's supposed to protect them?"

Sally sadly could do nothing but shout, "No!" while extending her right hand towards him as she saw Eggman walking over towards the button, replying icily, "And thus begins the new reign of the Eggman Empire!"

And with that statement, the mad doctor walked over to the button to press it.

However, he would receive abrupt interference before he could. Out of nowhere, Sally's backup help finally arrived, as Bunnie finally came flying in, where she then used her metal feet after blasting in to slam Silver Sonic III at top speed.

"What the…?"

Before Eggman knew what just hit him, Bunnie had sent Silver Sonic III violently crashing into the wall near Sally and Nicole, where it soon hit the ground with a thud, now heavily sparking in the process. Then a split second later, the cyborg rabbit grabbed Eggman by the neck with her metal hand, squeezing it slightly to cut off his air supply.

As the mad doctor gasped for air, Sally exclaimed happily, "Bunnie! Boy am I glad to see you!"

"Sorry I couldn't get here sooner, Sally girl." Bunnie replied. "This nasty scientist blocked my path with his confounded elevators doors."

Indeed he had. Up until this point, the cyborg rabbit basically had to use every bit of strength of her robotic strength to blast through last elevator door with her robotics, eventually putting a big enough sized hole in it to get past it.

Moments later, Eggman again attempted to press the button nearby his computer table, in spite of the fact Bunnie constrained him by having a tight grip around his windpipe.

The cyborg rabbit though quickly saw him reaching for the button after seeing his right arm extend forward, saying with an aggressive yank backwards angrily with her metal arm, "Oh no you don't! Get over here!"

Bunnie had pulled on the back of his neck so abruptly, she about pinched some nerves off around it in the process. That ironically though, wouldn't have been such a bad thing.

Bunnie then declared to Eggman with rage in her eyes after dragging him five feet away from the table, who was still trying to get enough air from his windpipe, "The game's over, you sicko! You're not vaporizing no Mobian as long as I'm here!'

Moments later, she turned to Sally and asked, "Were you and Nicole able to lockout the cannon?"

Sally quickly shook her head in sadness, replying with a heavy, "Unfortunately not. Nicole almost succeeded, but Eggman tried to destroy her by heaving her portable shell against the wall."

The squirrel Princess then added with a disheartening sigh, "He really did a number on Nicole to put it lightly. I'm really worried about her now."

"I see…" At that moment, the cyborg rabbit too felt deep concern for Nicole, as she also wondered how devastating her current condition was at the moment.

Moments later, Bunnie noticed Sally's lack of walk attire, inquiring awkwardly, "Um, I don't mean to change the subject here, but if you don't me asking, why are you barefoot now?"

"Never mind that." Sally said in response. "We've got to find an alternative way to stop the cannon program from firing."

"Well, do you have any suggestions then?" Bunnie inquired. "Ah'm all ears."

Sally during this time finally put her boots back on, now putting a hand on her chin to think. She then said, shaking her head again, "I got nothing. There's no way for Nicole to lock out the program now. The only thing I can think of is keeping Eggman away from the button, but that's easier said than done."

Bunnie soon spoke up, suggesting, "Wait just a minute… what if we break the button so Eggman couldn't press it?"

Sally quickly flashed a smile at that notion, replying, "You know, that just might be crazy enough to work…"

"Ok then, let's… Sally look out!" Bunnie shouted, soon glancing behind her.

At that moment, Silver Sonic III finally stood up after the cyborg rabbit's jolting kick, now attempting to cut the two Freedom Fighter gals to pieces.

Sally meanwhile jumped onto the table, as the large silver robot came flying in. Bunnie meanwhile decided to use her current situation to her advantage, putting Eggman in its path.

Eggman instantly panicked, shouting at his robot as loud as he could in spite of having a metal hand around his neck, waving at it in a panic, "Get back! Get back! I command you to turn around!"

Not surprisingly, Silver Sonic III obeyed, where it soon turned around, as Eggman soon added, "Stand down until further instructions."

Again, it obeyed him, now hovering back towards the right side of the room.

"Very clever of you, Doctor." Sally stated with a frown. "But you're not off the hook by a long shot."

Sally then said firmly while still on the table, now looking him in the eye, "You're going to at the very least stand trial for your crimes. And this time, you can be assured there will no mercy in store for you."

Eggman fully knew she meant by this, but kept his composure nonetheless.

"You were right in saying I shouldn't go on easy on you when you pretended to be insane." Sally added. "Going easy on maniacs like you only leads to trouble, like the one were currently in now."

Bunnie then said to rub it in his face, "I cannot wait to see you on trial, you nasty scientist. Seeing you get the needle is soon going to be nothing short of sweet satisfaction."

This time, Eggman did panic a bit inside, soon saying while trying to catch his breath, "Ok, ok, I get it. How bout we make a deal then?"

"Forget it!" Bunnie retorted, slightly tightening the grip around his neck. "We're not making deals with no nuts like you!"

"No, I'm serious here!" Eggman stated loudly. "I have some information that might help you with your current problem in New Mobotropolis."

"What exactly are you talking about?" Sally inquired, looking at him with arched eyebrows. What information could you possibly have that we would be the slight bit interested in?"

"I know Naugus is trying to reclaim his rightful place as King of your city." The mad doctor explained with a wheeze.

"And how would you know about that?" the squirrel Princess demanded, now more angry than before. "Are you trying to tell us something here?"

"Yes." Eggman replied. "Naugus and I currently have an alliance."

"WHAT?" Both Bunnie and Sally said in this unison, completely dumbfounded inside.

"You must be joking!" Sally interjected. "You mean to tell me this is a joint attack on our city by the two of you?"

"Precisely…" Eggman answered. "The reason I bring this up is because I can be a powerful witness against that rotten wizard. If they know I'm working with Naugus, the citizens will quickly turn on him, thus ending your problem of him trying to rule the city."

"Why would you even care about that since you were just moments ago going to vaporize the city with a push of the button?" Sally demanded.

"Hey, just because I have an alliance with Naugus doesn't mean I planned to fully honor it." Eggman explained. "Besides, that was a last resort move on my part anyhow, which you ended up forcing my hand to use after blowing up my roboticizing ray."

Not surprisingly, neither Sally nor Bunnie were ready to believe him, nor his words for that matter.

"You're just trying to bluff us again." Sally stated angrily. "I'm not buying it."

"Me neither." Bunnie said, adding her two cents.

Eggman though wasn't ready to quit bargaining, as he said with a straight face, "Look, I'll surrender to you all right now if you give me a chance to prove myself."

"Oh, sure you will…" Sally retorted with a fierce glare, crossing her arms together, quickly adding while glancing at her best friend, "I think we're done here."

"Darn tootin." Bunnie added again.

"I'm serious here." Eggman reiterated intently. "I'll even show you the easiest way to rip out the button if you don't believe me."

Sally now full out called his bluff, saying with another glare at him, "Prove it, Doctor."

Eggman again struggled to catch his breath, replying with a gasp, "If you look at the top of it, you'll see a tiny crevice around the button. You can use your fingers to rip it out that way with a little elbow grease."

Sally quickly ran towards it to confirm his story. Sure enough, it was exactly as he had said. This in an effect though made the squirrel Princess deeply arch her eyebrows.

She then demanded, glaring at Eggman again, "Ok, Eggman, what's the catch? How did you know about that?"

"Simple. I just know the ins and outs of my Death Egg." Eggman explained.

Bunnie soon spoke up I response, inquiring, "You think we ought to take him up on his word, Sally girl?"

Since Eggman had been completely honest here, Sally decided to indeed give it a shot. She then said to her best friend with a nod, "Go ahead and use your robotic arm since it should rip it out with ease."

"If you say so…" Bunnie quickly did as she was told; using the cybernetics of her metal arm to extend towards the button, where she soon put several of her fingers around the crevice, now ready to pull it out.

Bunnie had to switch during arms during this time, now having her non roboticized hand around his neck as she did this.

Before she went to work on it though, the cyborg rabbit instructed her best friend, "Watch him closely in case he tries anything."

Sally quickly nodded her head in agreement, doing just that.

However, the squirrel Princess couldn't fully keep her mind on watching him at the moment. She unwisely glanced down at Nicole's heavily damaged shell currently in her hands, making her sigh heavily in sadness at the sight of it.

What made it worse was that Nicole was now shorting in and out, only adding to Sally's concern.

That unfortunately, would be the least of her problems.

Eggman soon noticed Sally wasn't fully paying attention to him. Deciding to take clear advantage of this, Eggman quickly reacted, as he used his right elbow as hard as he could, ramming the butt end of it at the underside of Bunnie's chin.

Bunnie during this time had begun to rip out the button with ease, as ¼ of it was now peeled off. However, since the mad doctor had seriously jolted her with his elbow, the cyborg rabbit recoiled in response, currently stunned by the abrupt attack.

Eggman then got free of her grasp and quickly shoved Bunnie to the ground in one quick swoop.

Sally meanwhile during this time finally looked in shock, shouting in horror, "Bunnie!"

Moments later, Eggman ordered his Silver Sonic III, pointing at the cyborg rabbit, "Cut this rodent to pieces, my special robot!"

Silver Sonic III quickly responded to his command, now coming after Bunnie with a spin dash attack. Bunnie thankfully during this time got back on her feet, where she prepared to do battle with this silver monstrosity yet again.

Sally now growled loudly in disgust, placing Nicole back on her boot in response to this abrupt turn of events. She then saw Eggman going for the button again on the table again, but the squirrel Princess blocked his path with her body again, saying in anger soon after, "I should have you known you would try to escape if you got the chance!"

"You should have also known to keep your eyes on me at all times, rodent." Eggman shot back with a vile grin. "You never know when I'll play dirty again."

"When I get my hands on you, I'll see to it you still pay in full for this little stunt of yours," Sally reiterated sharply, "alliance or no alliance with Naugus!"

"Ah yes, about that…" Eggman said, trying to keep from grinning at her now. "You should know, I actually made the whole story up."

"You what?"

Eggman now let out a hearty chuckle, retorting icily, "You're such a sap, Princess. You're too trustworthy for your own good. I knew you'd believe me if I made the story believable enough. You should have just stuck to your guns and taken me out."

Sally again growled softly at him, as Eggman added, "Not to mention you being a softie is going to cost your little friend here dearly too soon enough. She won't be able to fend off Silver Sonic III for too much longer, not if I have anything to say anything about it anyway."

By this point, the squirrel Princess finally lost her cool, shouting at him, "Forget about taking you to trial. I'm going to execute you myself, right here, right now!"

Again, Eggman laughed heartily at her, retorting, "Ha! Good luck. I doubt you'll be able to do that, especially with my best robot currently in the room now. You probably won't even be able to stop me from pressing the button either."

Sally though wasn't about to back down from his boastful words, declaring with a hiss, "For the sake of my friends and people, I will take you out. One way or another, you're going down. Mark my words!"

"Then let's see it, Princess." Eggman dared, glaring at her with another grin on his face. "Show me what you're really made of!"

It was now the moment of truth. With so much currently at stake, Sally knew she had to step up and deliver at this very moment. There would be no more second chances. It was now or never.

Back up top, the battle currently going on up there would also soon be reaching its climax.

Sonic and Metal Sonic, or should we say Metal Sonic with Snively's help, continued to trade spin dashes back and forth, trying as hard as they could to get an edge over their foe.

Not surprisingly, it continued to be a stalemate again and again. With Snively in firm control of Metal Sonic's decision making, the small lackey used his intelligence prowess to keep his opponent constantly on his toes. No matter what Sonic did, he could not find a way to subdue his metal impersonator in order to deal with Snively's little headset.

Within thirty seconds, the blue hedgehog realized his current plan was not working at all. So, he soon thought with a firm glare on his face after landing on the ground, If I can't take this metal faker down to get at Snively, then I'll outwit it to do so.

Moments later, Snively said with a verbal jab, "Running out of steam, blue boy? Perhaps you should just quit before you get schooled."

Not on your life, needle nose, Sonic thought, again with a firm look on his face.

This time, Sonic decided to bait the blue spiky robot in order to get past it. He then pretended to run towards it in order to fake it out. Within seconds, Sonic curled into a ball and charged up in place.

Not surprisingly, Snively quickly had Metal Sonic do the same.

Three seconds later, Sonic went to attack. A split second later, so did Metal Sonic.

However this time, Sonic immediately jumped into the air at the exact same time his robot imposter came after him, quickly switching back to running back on foot a split second later after clearing Metal Sonic. Thanks to his impeccable timing, the blue hedgehog cleverly outwitted his robot double.

Snively now looked on in shock at Sonic's well thought out strategy, saying as he ran towards him, "And now to break that little toy of yours."

Unfortunately though, the small lackey kept his composure and adjusted accordingly. In spite of the fact Metal Sonic had been outwitted, Snively amazingly was able to compensate for it. He then had the blue spiky robot quickly turn around and chase after its prey at max speed, reacting in less than half a second.

Sonic during this time again jumped high into air and prepared to destroy Snively's head gear with a perfectly executed homing dash attack.

Snively though countered it perfectly. Sonic could only get within a foot of the small lackey's head, where he was then was blindsided from behind, tumbling to the ground chest first with a loud thud.

While Sonic tried to get back on his feet again, Snively let out a hearty, "Ha! Nice try, rodent, but you should know my little invention here is too well designed to be beaten by mere tricks like those."

Sonic meanwhile now stood up completely disgusted inside, where he soon saw Metal Sonic again coming after him to attack. After dodging it with a sidestep to the left, the blue hedgehog muttered in his mind, Man, this just made my battle with this metal faker all the more harder.

While this was going on, Amy too had her hands completely full. With no Piko Piko Hammer at her disposal, she would now have to rely on her fighter training from Julie-su to beat the red female echidna.

"Let's just see you light you are on your feet, pinkie." Lien-Da stated with a sly grin.

And with that statement, she unleashed every whip move she could muster with a flick of the wrist.

Again and again, she flung the tip of her whip at Amy's body, trying to inflict as much pain on her as possible.

Amy though kept her composure, thinking to herself as she evaded one whip stroke; remember what Julie-Su taught you, Amy. You can do this…

One thing she vividly remembered the pink echidna taught was her martial arts styled hand-eye coordination.

Watch closely the movement of the eyes and hands of your opponent at all times, Julie-su told her that day. If you can get an inkling of where they're aiming, your chances of evading their attacks are greatly increased.

And so, that's just what Amy did.

Keeping a sharp eye on Lien-Da's movements, Amy quickly reacted as the whip swings came her way.

Lien-Da during this time decided to toy with the pink hedgehog, as she then flung the whip directly at her dead center. Amy of course dodged it with ease, jumping back a couple of feet.

"C'mon, brat, dance for me…" Lien-Da stated, again raising her hand to swing.

Within seconds, the female red echidna began to fling her whip at Amy even faster, first aiming at her left side. Again, Amy evaded it with ease, sidestepping to the right.

Lien-Da though began to swing her whip at her even faster the next time, doing a double whip move, swinging towards the left again, with a quick flick to the right a split second later, trying to test how agile the pink hedgehog really was.

Again however, Amy used Julie-Su's training to near perfection, evading it once more by carefully following her advice.

After trying it the other way and failing again, Lien-Da soon began to frown inside, saying to Amy, "Ok, let's really put your agility to the test."

Lien-Da now seriously turned up the heat on the pink hedgehog, swinging her whip at her as fast as she could, flinging it again and again at the left, middle and right side of the floor where Amy was standing, one after the other in rapid succession.

But again, Amy showed the female red echidna just how resilient she really was. No matter how fast and powerful Lien-Da tried to attack her with the leather whip, it was all for naught. Amy by this time was in a zone; following Julie-Su's moves now letter perfectly.

Lien-Da soon began to lose her cool, as she let out an irritated growl at Amy in response to her failed attempts. Seeing her frustrated facial expressions made the pink hedgehog realize she could now try a risky move to get past her opponent and retrieve her hammer.

Amy then charged the female red echidna, trying to get her bite and swing her whip at the pink hedgehog again. Sure enough, she did indeed, and that's when Amy unleashed phase two of her strategy.

The second the whip came flying towards her head, Amy immediately went into a baseball styled slide, now sliding in-between Lien-Da's legs.

Before Lien-Da cold react to this, Amy quickly swung her right foot hard at the back of the red female's right knee. Instantly, it took out her legs from underneath her, causing Lien-Da to abruptly crash to the floor face first.

Amy meanwhile stood up and ran towards her Piko Piko Hammer from across the room, saying as a cheap shot, "Ha! Who's the weak one now, Miss Whipstress?"

Amy then finally ran over to her beloved hammer and attempted to pick up. However, Lien-Da had other ideas in mind.

Before she could even get a good grip on her Piko Piko Hammer, Lien-Da again wrapped her whip around her legs, dragging her back towards the red female echidna.

Since Lien-Da had taken her down so abruptly, Amy didn't get a chance to fight back. Before she knew it, Amy was soon right back where she was before, where the Lien-Da then used an abrupt flick of her wrist, quickly untangling her in a heartbeat.

This also in turn flipped Amy onto her back, where Lien-Da then quickly laid another stroke of whip at her, this time directly on the forehead.

Again, Amy had no time to react, but instead quickly let out another yelp from the painful sting of the attack, even leaving another small imprint of the whip on her pink forehead.

"It's still you, pinkie." Lien-Da retorted, now glaring at her opponent angrily.

Lien-Da again attempted to leave another imprint of her whip on Amy's face, but she finally stood up in time, evading it completely.

Lien-Da then said loudly in anger, now aggressively swinging the whip at Amy in rapid succession, "Thought you could outwit me with your little games? Well you obviously have no idea who you're dealing with, do you, brat?"

Amy during this time again used her quick footwork from Julie-Su's lessons, evading every swing that came at her as fast as she could.

Within seconds, the female red echidna soon spoke up again, declaring arrogantly after another strong whip stroke that landed near Amy's feet, "I am Lien-Da, grandmaster of the Dark Egg Legion! And soon I shall put and end to you and your pathetic heroics permanently!"

Amy not surprisingly was a little intimidated by her big words, but wasn't about to lose her resolve. She then thought to herself with a frown after landing on the ground once evading her foe's whip again, I don't care who you think are, Miss Whipstress, but when you dare start questioning my rights with Sonikku; I will make you pay severely for it!

Within moments, the pink hedgehog again tried to outwit Lien-Da in an attempt to retrieve her Piko Piko Hammer.

Unfortunately though, the red female echidna wasn't about to let that happen.

Amy then tried to use her quick footwork to do a double juke move in an attempt to run past Lien-Da since she was now flinging her whip at her even more aggressive rate then before.

That plan however would not work in the least. Within a second after running by Lien-Da, the red female echidna made her pay dearly for it, as she timed her next whip stroke to near perfection. She then flung the tip of her whip at the calf of Amy's left leg from behind, directly striking the center of it.

Amy quickly let out a yelp in pain after getting hit, even stopping momentarily in place due to the intense sting. She even dropped to one knee, clutching it tightly due to it hurting so badly.

Lien-Da soon marched towards the pink hedgehog in her current state, saying angrily as she winded her right arm again with the whip in hand, "Pathetic brat! Get it through your thick skull already; your so called tactics are useless against someone as intelligent as me!"

Again, Lien-Da unleashed another powerful whip stroke, this time aimed at Amy's head. However, the pink hedgehog quickly reacted after hearing the red female echidna's words. Expecting another whip swing at her from above, the pink hedgehog then quickly dove out of its range towards the right side of the room.

Sure enough, Amy's guess would be proven correct. She just barely missed getting flogged again.

Lien-Da though took another swing at her a split second later, again trying to leave a painful mark on her forehead.

However, due to the pain of the previous sting, the pink hedgehog firmly resolved within herself to not let her body get hit again. Within moments, Amy dove towards the back of the room now; missing yet another whip stroke that strongly smacked the ground nearby.

Amy now stood up, pain and all, as Lien-Da said to her boastfully with a smirk, "You jumping around like a Mexican bean won't help you out in the least, pinkie. Your hide is mine!"

Amy though wasn't about to give up. She was determined to find a way to defeat her opponent for the sake of her pride and beloved hero.

With Lien-Da currently holding the momentum over her, Amy knew she was going to have to do something desperate in order to take it back.

I hate to try a risky move now, Amy thought to herself, but I don't know what choice I have.

And so, that's just what the pink hedgehog did.

As Lien-Da came charging towards her, whip held high in her right hand, Amy soon did likewise, preparing for her next counter move as she ran.

Ok, here goes nothing. Amy thought to herself with a firm glare as she ran towards her foe.

Two seconds later, the two of them were about to collide yet again. That's when each made their move. Lien-Da raised her arm as high it would go, preparing for yet another deadly whip stroke directly in the middle.

Amy though was ready for it, as she got in position to make her counter attack. Her counter move would be none other than leaping high into the air and somersaulting past the red female red echidna, as well as her whip attack.

At the moment, the two of them made their moves almost simultaneously of each other, with Amy again getting the edge thanks to her impeccable timing, now somersaulting several feet over Lien-Da's head.

Unfortunately though, Lien-Da had lightning fast reflexes. The split second she saw Amy in the air several feet above her head, she shouted with her whip firmly in hand again, "Oh, no you don't!"

Amy sadly didn't factor in how disciplined of a dark legionnaire Lien-Da was, and soon paid dearly for it. Lien-Da then swung her whip at the pink hedgehog again, where she soon wrapped in firmly around her waist, stopping Amy dead in her tracks.

Now enraged and clearly out of patience, the red female echidna decided to deliver a punishing blow. Within a split second of having Amy firmly tangled in the whip, Lien-Da quickly used her whip prowess to near perfection, as she then used her whip to slam the pink hedgehog to the ground with a violent thud, chest first.

This time, Amy really felt it hard, even letting out a painful groan upon impact.

Lien-Da though wasn't done yet, as she decided on the spot to take the remaining fight out of her right then and there. Within another split second, the red female echidna went absolutely postal on her opponent, flinging her whip again and again at Amy with speed and power, inflicting pain on her at an almost alarming rate.

Before Amy could even blink three times, Lien-Da had flogged her five more times aggressively, twice on the back the head on each side near her ears, once directly on her back, and two more on each calf of her legs.

Amy by now could barely take the pain inflicted upon her. It was now to the point of almost unbearable agony. Tears again began to form in her eyes from the intense stinging.

Lien-Da soon saw them herself, making her chuckle with glee, commenting, "Ha! I knew you were a big wimp. You can't even handle a few whip marks. Even I can see clearly you're on the verge of crying. What a joke you are!"

Amy soon began to seethe inside at her words. Seeing Lien-Da adding verbal salt to her wounds was more than she could tolerate, even if part of what she was saying was true.

Lien-Da then said to her, now getting serious, "I'm going to give you one last chance to get your head out of the clouds and run home like the baby you are. You have no business being on the frontlines, pinkie. So why don't you do yourself a favor and leave? You're just embarrassing yourself in front of your so called hero."

Amy instantly snapped to attention. Hearing her mock her rights again added even more salt to her emotional wounds.

Lien-Da then said to her a few seconds later to rub it in even more, "I bet deep down even Sonic is ashamed to have you for a comrade, seeing how badly you fight and all. No wonder he prefers Princess Sally over you."

That was all Amy could stand. With a loud growl and gritted teeth, the pink hedgehog quickly stood up abruptly, in spite of her fresh scars from the whip marks, even making Lien-Da look on with arched eyebrows. Amy soon responded enraged while breathing heavily with a hiss, "You just made the biggest mistake of your life, witch."

Lien-Da ironically this time was now more amused at her words than insulted, as the pink hedgehog declared while pointing a thumb to her chest, "When this fight is over, Sonic will not see me as a baby in the least, but as Amy Rose, Class A Freedom Fighter!"

She then added pointing a finger at her, "and I shall soon show you how much you will regret by underestimating me!"

Again, Lien-Da looked on with a smirk, retorting, "All right, Amy Rose, you had your chance to bail with your pink hide in one piece, but since you're too stubborn to know your own limitations, you're going to feel the full wrath of my whip even more now. I will not hold anything back."

"Good." The pink hedgehog shot back, clinching both fists together in a fighting pose, "I wouldn't want you to go easy on me at all anyway. Give me your worst!"

Lien-Da now frowned at her intently, soon raising her whip in the process "Very well then, you asked for it, pinkie!"

And with that statement, the two of them charged towards each other again. This time, it would all be laid on the line.

I will defeat her if it's the last thing I do! Amy thought with fierce vigor in her facial expressions. She will pay dearly for daring to suggest Sonikku is embarrassed by me!

Moments later, the two Mobians gals would collide yet again.

This time though, they would each use different tactics on their opponent. Lien-Da now used a double whip attack move, flinging her whip from left to right in rapid succession. Amy however was fully ready for such a move, as she again used her agility to move from right to left to evade it.

Seeing her still coming towards her, Lien-Da then tried a quick side stroke to try and hit the pink hedgehog again in the forehead in an attempt to slow her down. Again however, that would not happen. Amy by this time was in a zone again, now running on pure anger and adrenaline. She easily evaded the whip attack, quickly ducking underneath it.

By now, Lien-Da started to get a bit unglued, as she tried to fling a quick vertical whip stroke soon after this. Unfortunately for the red echidna though, she would not get the chance. Amy soon closed in a big hurry and then violently trucked her with her right shoulder as hard as she could, leveling Lien-Da directly underneath her chin.

Amy hit Lien-Da so hard with her shoulder, it jarred the female red echidna to the point that she not only hit the ground with an abrupt thud on her back, but even lost possession of the whip in her right hand.

Seeing the golden opportunity at hand, the pink hedgehog took full advantage of it, as she finally ran over to her Piko Piko Hammer and firmly retrieved it.

However, she wouldn't get to enjoy the moment for too long, as she soon Lien-Da stand up, eventually retrieving her whip as well, now looking at her deeply incensed.

The red female echidna soon stretched her whip like a belt, saying with a hiss, "You dirty Freedom Fighter! I'll make you pay for your little cheap shot!"

While hearing Lien-Da no longer call Amy a brat or pinkie was a step in the right direction, Amy knew she had a job to finish, and so she got back to it.

Within moments, they again charged after each other, with Amy saying loudly with her Piko Piko Hammer firmly in her hands as she ran, "Let's finish this, Miss Whipstress!"

"With pleasure!" Lien-Da shot back.

The two of them soon would collide once more, as each prepared to use their trademark weapon against their opponent.

Lien-Da though, being more highly disciplined got the first jump on Amy, as she flung her whip at her a split half of a second faster than the pink hedgehog could when she tried to swing her hammer at the female red echidna. Like before, her whip soon completely entangled mallet head of her Piko Piko Hammer again, trying once more to rip it out of her hands.

This time though, Amy would not let it happen.

In spite of Lien-Da getting a slight advantage in reaction time, it would be all the advantage she would get. Amy now used her firm determination and pure anger to try and overpower her opponent.

However, that at first would prove to be easier said than done, as each side would not budge. Even when Amy tugged as hard as she could, Lien-Da refused to give an inch in response.

I will not let this witch beat me! Amy thought to herself, gritting her teeth firmly at Lien-Da, with great beads of sweat dripping down her face. Not when I'm this close…

For the next ten seconds, it continued to be a stalemate, with neither side budging one iota.

Amy then realized she had to change it up. She just could not overpower Lien-Da with sheer muscle alone.

I'll have to try a risky move here, Amy thought again, but if it pays off, I'll really knock her for a loop!

And so, Amy would give her all here.

Two seconds later, the pink hedgehog finally went for it, grasping her Piko Piko Hammer as tightly as possible in case of a misfire. She then changed the direction of her hammer, now swinging it forward towards the ground instead of raising it above her head in an attempt to get Lien-Da off balance.

The move thankfully paid off, as the abrupt change in direction did indeed cause the female red echidna to slightly stumble forwards due to being taken by complete surprise.

The split second Amy saw Lien-Da stumble forwards; it was all she wrote to say the least. Amy then wound her arms again with every bit of strength within her, now carrying the female red echidna up into the air with her still grasping onto her whip, taking Lien-Da for a ride in the air she would not soon forget.

Since they were nearby some walls during their conflict, Amy fully used them to her advantage, now quickly flinging Lien-Da towards a metal wall on the right side of them, slamming her violently into it chest first.

Now heavily stunned, Amy swung her opponent a second time into the opposite direction, this time into the left side of the wall, again violently slamming the red female echidna into it, with her back now taking the full brunt of it.

Amy though still wasn't done, as she soon swung her around above her head and around again in circles, when she then wound up her arms again behind her shoulder while jumping briefly into the air, eventually body slamming Lien-Da to the ground five feet in front of her with brute force, swinging her hammer towards the ground to pull this off.

Lien-Da crashed to the floor with a heavy thud on her face, now groaning loudly inside, as well withering in pain. To put it lightly, Amy had just beaten the tar out of her, using the red female echidna's own tangled whip against her no less.

Amy then put her right foot on the badly beaten up Dark Legionnaire's back, declaring loudly with pride, "I guess I'm not such a baby after all to whip your hide, witch. Next time, think twice before you dare question my abilities."

Not surprisingly, Lien-Da didn't respond. She was now in too much agony to even to do so.

Deciding to not waste anymore time on her, Amy soon saw her hero in a intense battle with Metal Sonic across the room, where she then ran over to him, saying with her hammer firmly in both hand, "Hang on, Sonikku, I'll help you put that bot in it's place soon enough."

While this had been going on, Sally and Bunnie's personal battle continued.

As the cyborg rabbit fought valiantly with the Silver Sonic III on the right side of the room, Sally would tangle with Eggman yet again.

Sally was very tempted to rip out the button behind her to disable the Death Egg Cannon, but decided to deal with the mad doctor first. She wanted no more interruptions from him, that and the fact she wanted to make him pay in full for personally humiliating her earlier.

"C'mon, Princess, take me on if you dare." Eggman challenged with a vile grin. "I'll make sure to end your misery soon enough."

Within moments, Sally jumped down in front of him from the left side and got into a martial arts pose, replying firmly, "It'll be your end, Doctor, when I'm done with you, not mine."

Not even two seconds later, the two titan leaders from each side would do battle yet again, with Sally taking the first swing.

The squirrel princess immediately began to attack him with a flurry of martial art punches and kicks, trying to level the mad doctor to the floor. Eggman of course moved slightly back from each attack to evade it.

Seeing this gave Sally an idea.

I'll back him into a corner, she thought firmly while swinging her arms and leg, and then have Bunnie help me take him down once she deals with Eggman's robot appropriately.

Eggman not surprisingly soon figured out what she was trying to do after seeing her attacking him more vertically with each swing, causing him to prepare a counter move.

Once they were within seven feet of the Bunnie and Silver Sonic III, Eggman waited for Sally's next swing with her fist at him, and that's when he pounced, as he grabbed her right arm abruptly, even surprising Sally how fast he was able to do this.

Eggman then flung her into the wall on the right side back first, knocking her to the ground in one quick swoop.

Seeing her momentarily stunned, the mad doctor decided to break their spirits in the most convincing of ways: press the button to the Death Egg Cannon.

He soon walked over there all nonchalantly and stood nearby it, saying out loud arrogantly with his finger near the button, "So long, citizens of New Mobotropolis, it's been painful knowing you."

Sally during this time finally cleared her head, where she soon saw him near the computer table. Seeing the look on his face, she knew what he was about to do

Running over as fast as she could, the squirrel Princess charged towards him with fury.

Eggman sadly took his sweet time to press it, wanting to savor the moment. That though would end up costing him dearly at the moment. Within a split second of having his finger touch the button to push it forward, Sally then came flying in, again using her elbow to ram him in the back.

Sally's accuracy was even right on the money, as she hit the mad doctor directly in the middle of his spine with her elbow, making him instantly fall to the ground on his face in a loud yelp.

Moments later, Sally jumped onto the table and tried to finish ripping out the metal around the button to disable it.

Eggman however soon stood up after a few seconds, back pain and all, seeing her pry it back some more with her fingers as hard as she could.

"Oh, no you don't!" he roared, running over to her.

Eggman again grabbed abruptly Sally, this time by her vest and shoved her back, causing her to hit the back of the wall again.

"You're not stopping my plans to kill your filthy kind and that's final!" the mad doctor declared, walking over to the button to press it.

But again, Sally would not go down quietly. She now took out his legs from under him, hitting him hard on the calves of his legs, throwing her body against them with everything she had.

Eggman again hit the floor, this time back first.

This time though, the mad doctor quickly stood up before Sally could get back on the table, saying to her with a hiss while pointing a finger in her face, "I've had all I can stand with you, Princess! I am to going to end this pathetic battle of ours here and now!"

Sally didn't say anything in response, but instead glared at him intently, letting her body language speak for her this time.

Moments later, Eggman tried to shove her hard on to the ground as hard as he could with both hands. Sally though met his hands with her very own, soon getting into another intense grappling match with him.

Despite Sally weighing much less and having not nearly as much muscle mass as Eggman, she held her ground against him with everything she had quite admirably. With her people's lives at stake, Sally refused to go down and quit. She would fight until there was nothing left.

Seven seconds into their duel, Bunnie meanwhile could not corral Silver Sonic III on the right side of the room with her robotic strength any longer. Up until this point, the cyborg rabbit gave it everything she had to try to damage it further, but was now starting to get physically exhausted inside by the constant struggle.

Within another split second, Silver Sonic III finally rammed past Bunnie, knocking her to the ground with an abrupt spin dash attack to her right side. The spin dash even slightly cut her right metal leg from its razor sharp metal blades, causing it to unfortunately spark inside a bit now.

Meanwhile, Eggman soon saw his robot coming right for them, making him realize he had to take drastic measures. Sally however took full advantage of his current distraction, where she then kneed him in the gut, momentarily stunning the mad doctor.

Even so, Eggman wouldn't let her get anymore cheap shots, as he then abruptly grabbed her underneath each of her shoulders while she was trying to attempt to kick him hard, now holding her directly in the line of fire of the Silver Sonic III.

Sally instantly gasped in horror at the sight of it coming towards her, as Eggman added with a chuckle, "Don't be scared, Princess. I'm sure it'll be painless for the most part. Heh heh!"

Sally however wasn't about to let Eggman have that privilege, as she then elbowed him as hard as she could in the face, hitting directly in the mouth, giving him a fat lip in the process.

Within moments, Eggman let out a loud yell in pain, now holding the bottom of his face in pain, as well as dropping Sally in the process.

Eggman however wouldn't get to hold it for long, as he quickly remembered the Silver Sonic III coming for them, making him instantly duck to the floor, even flat on his back near the left wall. His timing for him fortunately couldn't have been better. Silver Sonic III came within several inches of cutting his scalp. It was so close, even some of his mustache hairs were shaved off as a result.

After it passed by, Eggman soon looked up and saw Sally again trying to break off the button, making him growl.

He then stood up and tried to take her down once more, grabbing her by the vest to yank her back.

Again, he would receive more interference, but not by Sally or even Silver Sonic III. Instead, it was by the cyborg rabbit, flying in at full speed to kick him in the head with her right robotic leg, sparking and all.

Even so, Eggman quickly let go of Sally to duck and evade the oncoming attack, completely missing it.

The irony was though, Bunnie attacking Eggman actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise for the mad doctor. Unknown to him or the others, Silver Sonic III had soon turned around after failing to damage it previous target, preparing to attack the cyborg rabbit again with another spin dash, with Eggman directly in his path.

Instead however, Bunnie would slam the silver monstrosity head on, ramming it into the wall behind them with a ton force, seriously stunning it in the process.

Two seconds later, Sally kicked Eggman directly on his currently wounded cut chin with the back of her right boot, inflicting more pain on it to get him to flinch and recoil.

Sure enough, he did. Sally then shouted at her best friend while grabbing the edges of the metal of the button, "Keep that robot busy for about another ten seconds! I should be done disabling the firing mechanism by then!"

"Can do, Sally girl." Bunnie replied, now using her robotic fists to damage its metal structure some more.

The cyborg rabbit by this time was running mostly on pure adrenaline to keep herself going.

Eggman however had other plans, as he again grabbed Sally by the vest, shouting, "You will do such thing if I have anything to say about it!"

Sally tried to hit again with her elbow to jolt him, but missed, as the mad doctor was now wise to this, moving his head to the right when it come near him. Even when she attempted to hit him with the back of her right boot, Sally again unfortunately missed, with Eggman moving his head again, this time to the left.

After he evaded a third swing, this time with the back of Sally's left foot, Eggman finally made his move, shoving Sally to the floor from behind yet again.

"Enough of this nonsense!" Eggman shouted, moving his finger towards the button, "I'm going to fire the Death Egg cannon right now and put an end to this pathetic charade!

Sally though wasn't about to let that happen. She quickly jumped onto the table and stood in front of him to block his path before he could get close enough, realizing there wasn't enough time to tackle the mad doctor in time.

"Get out of my way, you miserable pest!" Eggman shouted at her.

"NEVER!" Sally shot back. "I'll fight you to the death before I let you press this button."

"Very well then… have it your way!" Eggman roared in response.

Within moments, Eggman again tried to shove Sally aside after grabbing her by the vest. This time though, she would not allow him to do it, now firmly holding her ground by grabbing the top of each wrist with both hands to hold herself in place.

Nevertheless, Eggman kept trying. He even tried to push the button with his right arm over her shoulder in spite of her trying to clamp it down in an attempt to show her how futile her efforts were to stop him.

Even so, Sally's efforts were again valiant, as she amazingly kept him from getting close enough to do so, using every bit of strength and adrenaline within her to pull it off.

Eggman's frustration with her holding him back soon began to grow, as he tried as hard as he could now to subdue her and take out the remaining fight she had by trying to press the button.

Again, Sally held him back, clamping her hands around his wrists as tightly as a cat's claws on a tree.

While this was going on, Bunnie continued to try and weaken Eggman's robot to the point to where she could blast it in the head with another laser blast to put it out of commission. Up until this point, Bunnie was trying to conserve them as best as she could, especially due to the fact she had used several already and eventually was getting weaker because of it.

After punching it in the face again, the cyborg rabbit now decided to go for the second to last finishing blow, which would be a flying kick to its head at full speed.

Sadly though, she misjudged its resiliency. After she backed up three feet and flew in, Silver Sonic III finally kicked into high gear, where it soon spun into a ball again and attacked Bunnie with another lethal spin dash.

Within a split second, the cyborg rabbit was smacked aside by its attack, even receiving another cut to her metal leg from the blades sticking out, this time on the left one. This cut sadly would be somewhat larger than the cut from the right leg, which also began to spark.

As for Sally and Eggman, they soon heard Silver Sonic III coming for them too.

Now within three feet and closing, both of the titan leaders had no choice but to duck, which they both did.

After it passed by them without a scratch, Sally tried to punch Eggman in the face to knock him back to buy some time, as well as put him in the line of fire of his silver monstrosity.

Eggman though was ready for such a move, quickly ducking underneath it and then flung Sally onto the ground, ordering his Silver Sonic III after it had turned around, "Cut her up, now!"

Silver Sonic III instantly obeyed, again spinning into a metal ball and charging directly towards Sally.

While the squirrel Princess gasped in horror, Eggman decided to watch her upcoming demise for the time being instead of taking care of business, as he wanted to see this up close and personal.

That move however would instantly backfire. By not factoring Sally's best friend into the equation at the moment, the mad doctor quickly paid for it and then some.

Out of nowhere, Bunnie finally came flying in, wounded metal legs and all, where she then grabbed Eggman by the neck of his shirt and strongly tossed him backwards into the wall, causing him to crash into it with a loud thud back first, knocking him senseless in the process.

While he slumped to the ground in a heavy daze, Bunnie quickly shouted to Sally while pointing her arm cannon at her head, "Duck, Sally girl!"

Sally didn't have to be told twice, as she did just that.

Bunnie meanwhile fired another large laser blast, sending the Silver Sonic III into the wall from behind with brute force, as it slammed into it violently.

Not wanting to give it any more chances, the cyborg rabbit charged in again, using her rocket boosters to fly towards the silver monstrosity, again, ramming it hard into the wall again head first with her metal legs.

Despite her metal legs sparking during this time, Bunnie was still able to fly in fast enough to do some more damage, stunning it further.

Then, to put it away for the time being at least, Bunnie quickly wound her robotic arm back and punched Silver Sonic III under its metal chin with every bit of strength she could muster, sending it flying into the ceiling, where the metal spikes on its head were even jammed through it in the process.

With it clearly stuck now, Bunnie shouted to Sally, "Quick, rip out the button while you got the chance!"

Sally immediately did as she was told.

Now unhindered, the squirrel princess placed her fingers around the edges of it again, where she then slowly, but methodically ripped it out of the wall. As an extra safety precaution, she even snapped the wires connected to it with her hands.

Ten seconds later, it was done.

Bunnie soon waved her cowboy hat at her best friend, exclaiming with excitement while hooping and hollerin, "Well done, Sally girl. We did it! This nasty scientist's plans are now history."

Sally quickly smiled at her friend, where she soon grabbed Nicole from her boot, saying while looking at her badly battered computer shell with a look of sadness in her eyes, "I only wish though it could have done without Nicole paying such a heavy price."

Even now, Nicole was barely functioning at all. Her circuits had been heavily damaged from the jolt of hitting the wall earlier; she was on the verge of shutting off completely.

Moments later, Eggman finally cleared his head with a loud groan. Within seconds, he saw what Sally and Bunnie had done while he was down.

"So… you actually disabled the button and even the wires too…?" Eggman inquired. "I must say, that was a really valiant effort on your part."

Sally and Bunnie though ignored his compliment, with Sally declaring boldly while placing her hands at her waist, "It's over, Doctor. You lose. You can no longer harm the citizens of Mobotropolis. It's time for you to surrender and give yourself up."

Surprisingly, Eggman just grinned at them, retorting, "You actually think I'm going to do something like that? My, you must really be one crazy rodent if that's what you're hinting at."

Bunnie now spoke up, replying angrily at him, "enough of the hubbub, Eggman. You're going to give yourself up or I'll wrench your arm out of its socket if I have to!"

Eggman now chuckled at them, responding with the same banter, "So you really think it's over just like that? You really think I don't have any tricks left up my sleeve?"

By this time, Sally finally lost her patience, saying loudly to him, "You better shut your mouth if you know what's good for you, Doctor. It's over. Your plans are shot and your Death Egg Cannon is now disabled. It won't take much for me now to have you executed on site."

Eggman now looked at the squirrel princess intently, soon roaring with laughter at her, as well as Bunnie.

This in turn angered the both of them, with Bunnie shouting at him with her arm cannon pointed at him, "Shut your trap if you don't want me to fry it, buster!"

Eggman settled down, retorted with another chuckle, "Oh, I'm sorry, but I was under the impression you said my Death Egg Cannon was disabled. That is just hilarious thinking on your part."

"It is…" Sally shot back, crossing her arms together. "And for someone who's supposed to be a genius, you sure have a funny way of taking a defeat."

"On the contrary, rodents…" The mad doctor countered. "I'm far from being finished off."

"Just how do you figure that anyhow?" Bunnie demanded.

"Simple. With this…"

And with that statement, Eggman pulled out a remote from his pocket, with Sally soon commenting, "And what do you think you're going to do with that? Blow us up?"

"Oh no… I'm not going to blast the two of you." Eggman explained with a vile grin. "I'm going to something MUCH WORSE."

Before Sally and Bunnie could grasp what he was getting at, the mad doctor pressed a button, and there a digital timer soon was shown near the top of the wall by the computer, showing two minutes on it.

"What in tarnation…?"

While Bunnie looked on dumbfounded, Sally instantly figured out what it was, saying, "No… you gotta be kidding me!"

"Oh, but I'm far from kidding here…" Eggman retorted, still grinning at the two of them. "I had a feeling there was a slight chance one of you wretched rodents might disable the button that fired my Death Egg Cannon in here. So, I installed a backup program into my Cannon, just as a precaution.

Eggman then commented while the two of them looked on bewildered, "You know, I actually got quite a kick out of you watching you filthy animals trying with all your heart to disable the button. I knew it would be futility on your part in the end, but I so wanted to see that smirk wiped off of your faces when you actually thought I was done for."

By this time, Sally and Bunnie's facial expressions changed to one of deep despair, especially after Eggman added, "And the best part is, once I hit this red button again, there's nothing you can do to manually stop the timer."

Instantly, both Freedom Fighters shouted at him while extending their right hands, "NOOOOO!" Bunnie even attempted to fire her arm cannon to blast it out of his hands.

But it was too little, too late. Eggman quickly hit the button with his right thumb before she could even pull the trigger. The timer now began to count down.

Eggman again rubbed it in their faces, saying with a cackle, "The only way you can stop it from firing is to destroy the internal Death Egg main network, but I don't see that happening, especially since it's heavily protected by a special glass. Not to mention you probably don't even know where it is anyway."

Within seconds, Eggman laughed heartily at their predicament, declaring boldly "Victory will soon be mine!"

However, the mad doctor didn't factor in on one thing.

Determined to help them out in spite of her heavy damage to her computer shell, Nicole now used the last of her remaining power to tell her friends, "Sally, Bunnie. The room that holds the Death Egg main network… it's on the floor above, three doors to the right."

"What?" Eggman was instantly incensed, shouting at her, "Why you rotten no good…"

Sally though interrupted him, saying to her cyborg best friend, "Hurry, Bunnie. You're the only one that can get there fast enough to stop it. You've got to hurry. Time is running out!"

Bunnie quickly nodded her head, replying with a nod, "I'm on it, Sally girl."

And with that statement, the cyborg rabbit flew out of the room and up the elevator.

At that moment, the mad doctor was angry enough to kill the squirrel Princess on the spot, but decided to take care of the more important matter at hand.

Eggman then shouted at his robot, "Get your head out of the ceiling already, you bucket of bolts! We've got a rodent to stop!"

Silver Sonic III during this time tried to loosen its stuck spikes in the edges, now finally getting them free. Once it did that, Eggman's silver monstrosity flew after Bunnie to deal with her appropriately.

As for Eggman he tried to run of the room and follow after them.

Sally though tried to trip him to slow Eggman down in the process, but failed. The mad doctor jumped over her foot and shoved her to the ground, where he then ran out of the room, quickly sealing it from within with a push of a button.

Sally unfortunately soon saw discovered this herself, demanding of the mad doctor, "HEY! What's the big idea?"

"Sorry, rodent, but I'm not letting you interfere with my plans any longer." Eggman replied as she banged on the metal door. "Once I'm done dealing with that carrot muncher friend of yours, you'll be the next one to go."

"NO!" Sally shouted in a panic.

"Ta ta, Princess…"

And with that statement, Eggman ran towards his hovercraft that was currently stationed in another room and flew off in it, chasing after the cyborg rabbit intently.

Sally now felt completely helpless inside, thinking to herself, I've got to find a way to get Bunnie some help or she's done for. She won't be able to take down Eggman and his robot at the same time."

If that wasn't bad enough, she also felt a deep concern for Nicole's current state of well being, who by this time had run out of power from her portable computer console, now shut off.

"There's gotta be something I can to do to get Bunnie some backup," she stated with a look of fear in her eyes, "but what?"

Just then, she remembered something.

"Wait a second…" she said to herself, "I heard Eggman clearly broadcasting from this room. If I can find the microphone of his, I can get Sonic and Amy at least to help her out."

However, Sally didn't know where it currently was, amplifying her dilemma, on top of the fact time was running out. Not to mention she didn't even know how they were currently doing at the moment.

Nevertheless, Sally vowed to find a way to get their attention. She would not let Eggman win without a fight.

I've come too far to throw in the towel now, Sally thought to herself with determination in her eyes. I must press on, even if things are looking really bad.


End file.
